Washington Nationals v Cincinnati Reds

The game got under way at 7pm. I had no idea about the rules so I was having to Google them as the game went on. And even when I thought I understood the rules something would happen that didn't make sense to me.

Anyway the general gist is that there are 9 innings in which both teams get to bat. A teams innings is over when 3 of their players are out. A player can be out by... okay I'm going to stop here as there are a lot of rules.

One thing that struck me was that they must go through dozens of balls every game as no effort is ever made to retrieve the balls from the stands. The ball girl was even giving them away to people in the stands every time she collected a ball. At one point I came within milliseconds of catching a ball but the guy next to me (pictured with the ball) got his hands in front of mine.

Washington took a comfortable lead and were 8-1 up after 7 innings. They hit two actual home runs and in one innings ran 4 home runs, impressive given that the MLB all time record is 5.

In the 9th innings though Cincinnati scored 4 home runs of their own to claw the score back to 8-5, they also had two more men on base. I was fearing a collapse by the Nationals but also thought maybe I'd see the MLB home run innings record get broken.

But next thing, all of the lights went out in the stadium and then started flashing red and white with music on top. The boards in the stadium flashed the name 'Finnegan' and everyone started going mad. It was evidently some kind of dramatic surprise substitution, which I didn't even know was possible as he wasn't in the 9 named batsmen. It was an entrance that reminded me of when John Cena came in as the last man in the 2008 Royal Rumble having been injured for over a year.

The magnificent Finnegan managed to keep Cincinnati from scoring another home run so much to the delight of the home crowd the Nationals ran out 8-5 winners.

It's fair to say I thoroughly enjoyed my first baseball experience.Read more