Better results, but still I worry...

I went to the Nationals game with a friend yesterday.  It was Pudge Rodriguez bobblehead day and my friend was nice enough to go along to the game.  Since it wasn't a game I already had tickets for I bought tickets there.  I got a bit irritated with the ticket sales people at the stadium as the one that I made the mistake of lining up in front of was apparently uncapable of getting me a pair of seats anywhere even though the electronic ticketing system/vending machine was more than happy to offer me a pair at various locations in the stadium.  (I had gone over to the regular ticket lines to see if I could get seats that were on the aisle, rather then being in the middle of an aisle, but again the ticket seller seemed incapable of finding me a pair of seats anywhere...)  I wound up going back to the vending machine and got a pair of seats on it even as my friend and I walked around the corner of the stadium and were hearing people claiming the game was a sellout.  Really?!  The attendance was 30,000+ which is pretty good, but an official sellout is 42,000+ so I think there were still plenty of seats available but perhaps some of the ticket sellers couldn't access those extra seats for some reason or another (maybe they were reserved specifically for sale by the electronic kiosk type things).

Anyway, we got decent seats and after getting some food found our way to the seats and sat down to enjoy the game.  Since we'd gotten there so early we actually got up and walked around the stadium a bit so we could kill some time before the game started and then stopped and picked up some Gelato as we returned to our seats.  Yummm.

After a great rendition of the National Anthem (by the West Point Alumni Glee Club) and a first pitch thrown out by a servicemember that had been wounded in the middle east (and had lost a leg there) the game began.

I had joked with my friend that I had no issue leaving early if we weren't watching a no-no and sure enough the game took care of that for me early with Livan Hernandez giving up 3 runs in the first inning.  With the team 3 runs down, I worried that we weren't going to be seeing a win that day, but over the next several innings the Nationals clawed back and went ahead, despite an absolutely silly call that nearly ruined things for the day (and some stupid mistakes by the Nationals on the base paths as well).

The Cardinals tied up the game around the 5th inning and we decided that it was time to go visit the team store and perhaps head back to my car so we could get back home at a reasonable hour.  While we there it seemed that the team was getting some action going and sure enough about the time we walked out the gates Adam Dunn proceeded to smack a home run that put the Nationals back ahead in the game for good.  Later they piled on more hits and more runs and wound up turning the game into a total blow-out.

Now comes the part I worry about... the failure, at least so far, of the Nationals to have resigned and/or extended Adam Dunn's contract before now.  While the guy has some defensive issues, he is still a dynamite hitter and without him in the line-up next season I fear we'll be watching a pretty bad team trying to score runs with a bunch of minor league players.  Things will be bad enough already with the loss of Strasburg and a bunch of question marks in the pitching rotation, but losing a reliable power hitter would not be a good thing.

I still hold out hope that the Nationals will sign Dunn to a new deal and keep him around for a few more seasons.  I realize they aren't destined for the playoffs next season, but I swear I want a reason to go to the ballpark and pay my money to get tickets and if they lose Dunn I may find myself questioning the sanity of paying for season tickets for a team that has shown their fans little love so far.