Nats game: 9/4/26

I welcome the math and musings.

I'm Michael Kyle, creator of math and musings, and your host.

Stay tuned for 15 minutes of science, politics, news, and opinion.

In other words, math and musings.

Today's day is Friday, September 4, 2026.

This is season 6 episode number 36.

I do have my son with me here today.

Frank, how are you?

Good. I am glad here at looking at the date.

I wrote 9 4 28.

That is not the date.

It is not 2028 that Jesus, that wishful thinking.

Maybe for you, wishful thinking on my part or the opposite.

I wish I were younger.

I know you wish you were older.

I know how that goes.

Right now is pretty good.

Right now is pretty good.

I think we talked about 2020 last week as well.

That is Los Angeles Olympics.

I'm talking about season 6 right now.

The episode number today is the season number squared.

6.36.

It is a holiday.

Do you know what today is holidays?

Nobody does.

Nobody does.

Monday is Labor Day.

Monday is Labor Day.

It is what I can tell you.

It is like a religious holiday of some faith that we don't recognize or celebrate ourselves.

Maybe.

The religion is called the little known faith known as the tourist industry.

They have a holiday today.

This is the make Labor Day a four day weekend concession in the state of Virginia.

Straight up concession to the tourism industry.

Because they start school so early and cut off so much of summer, you give us a soft to the tourism industry.

The people who make their money in the summer, you have to give them back a little.

How about a four day weekend over Labor Day?

That sounds crazy.

That sounds like...

Mostly true.

That's actually the reason whether anyone in the legislature would admit it or not.

That's why I do it.

I'll take it.

I'll take it.

I'll take it.

I'll take whatever we can get.

Because you know what?

Because we take advantage.

We never miss out on anything.

Never miss out on anything.

Now we had gone the whole summer.

Never made it to a major league baseball game.

We had been to a bunch of minor league, summer league, weirdos, strange leagues that they have all around this fruit of playing.

Yeah.

But we hadn't been to MLB.

Now we had been to like six, seven different games.

And we had been on quite a win streak.

I think we were six and one.

You and I were six and one.

We had to write the ship because I think our most recent game was in L.

So I found a data on the calendar.

I said, you know, the nationalists can probably handle.

I don't know.

Maybe the Miami Marlins.

You know, you got two bad teams going.

No.

Although I would say with following this game, Marlins were over 500 in spoiler alert.

And two bad teams.

And because of that, you're going to get some reasonably priced tickets.

Do you know how much I paid for the tickets to our game?

That is correct.

I paid nothing.

I'm so good at this.

Do you know how much I paid to park?

That is correct.

Wow.

Nothing.

Yeah, we tempted fate and drove.

We usually ride the metro.

That's what we call the train around here.

You said you didn't want to ride the metro.

And I mean, I like driving.

Since the day I turned 16, I've driven hundreds of thousands of miles.

And I still like driving.

You're more in control that way.

I found a parking spot not too far from the stadium.

Like, you know, three quarters of miles or so.

You do that.

I'm just like, it's a minute walk.

Yeah, not bad at all.

And then a free food.

Dude, this was the last time.

Because the deal is kids 12 and under.

Kids eat free.

So this.

Maybe next year I can get along with it.

Oh, I'm sure you could.

I mean, I think they just give it to anybody.

And it's not like they're giving you a steak.

It's like, hand you a.

It's a little hot dog.

Wrap up hot dog in a bag, chips in a little thing of water in bag.

Which is good enough as a little snack.

But I think it's the last time we're doing that.

No, speaking of things in bags.

I thought this game was in the bag.

I see their starter.

Miami started.

Did you catch his name?

No.

Junk.

They were throwing junk.

Miami was throwing junk at us.

Yeah, Jansen junk.

And the thing is he was okay.

He pitched okay.

He pitched into the fifth and he gave up only one run.

But our starter.

Our starter was Sandy Kofax.

I mean, Andrew Alvarez in the game.

He's, you know, okay.

I'm the season.

This game.

Six innings.

You know, pitched into the seventh inning.

Two hits.

Six strikeouts.

Leaves with the lead.

So he's in line for the curly W.

They bring in Clayton Bleeder.

Who is lights out.

He's even more dominant.

His two innings.

I think he had three strikeouts.

So.

And the game is flying by.

You noted this.

You said it was like the fastest game you'd ever seen.

Yeah, I mean, it was like a two hour like by like the eighth inning.

It was like two hours.

The two hour mark.

You were hitting about, uh, it was already eighth inning two hours in.

You were watching the 50-50 money going.

This is, now, it, there was, the game was flying by so quickly.

You were watching the time and you were watching the amount of money

that the 50-50 graph was up to.

What did it get up to at the end?

It was over 9,000.

Over 9 grand.

So, yeah.

So, yeah.

Winner, winner was going to get a 4500 bucks.

And it was like, I'm sure the people there wish they had more time in this game.

Or like the beer vendors wish they had more time in this game.

I'm just beating around the bush here because I can barely pronounce what happened next.

Because this game, the eighth inning ends.

And that's tack on insurance run by the most of this game they left one nothing.

Tack on insurance run.

Eighth inning ends is two zero.

Oh, so here, let's take a pause, bro.

What was the greatest moment of the game?

Uh, that one time that we got a Korean hot dog.

Korean, oh, the Korean corn dog.

Yeah, so that.

Is that Korean corn dog?

Yeah.

How do you even describe it?

I don't think they call it the Korean corn.

What did they call it?

I don't know.

Yeah, and I don't know the name of the vendor.

I give them a shout out.

Yeah, it was the most 2026 you could get inside this ballpark.

Fried cheese.

And I have, yeah, I have made fun of the modern ballpark many times before.

It's like, it's not just penis and crack or jack anymore.

Like you can walk into that's park and get, you know, fried octopus if you want.

So I'm sure you've got.

Yeah, I'm sure they sell it.

And it's like you, you want a bottle of wine?

In a, in a, in a base plastic baseball that they'll do it for anyway.

So yeah, the Korean corn dog with fried cheese on a stick.

Yeah, that's how I would translate.

Like if I looked at the translation from Korean, it would say fried cheese on a stick.

They had several other varieties.

Like hot cheetos, they put on a lot of it.

Yeah, of this thing, one level of hot and spicy or another.

We went with like the stand.

It was still, it was still hot.

Oh, yeah.

And then the spicy mayo.

Yeah, there's a spicy mayo with it.

Did it have a fancy name?

Did you see or I just called fire mayo sauce?

Spicy mayo.

Yeah, it's like, yeah, yeah, Roar Orange.

I've had a room in San Choufort.

I know, that was nylon dressing, Russian dressing.

This was like 2000 nylon dressing.

This was something.

But yeah, this was the only thing I paid for.

Do you want to say I think I was?

It was like $11.

Worth every penny.

When I say your hot dog is $11 and it's worth every penny.

You know, it's good.

You know, it's crazy.

There was a drink there that I think costed more as a base.

Not even like, what do you think?

At that stand?

Yeah, at that stand.

Because I know they have some expensive spirits around the park.

But at that stand, was it alcoholic or was it just...

We're dirty soda or...?

I've been like a bowl of things.

Oh, okay.

I'm fixer.

Actually, I think I saw that.

So...

Yeah, yeah.

Anyway, yeah.

They had some unusual things.

The whole park, they get an unusual thing.

But yeah, worth every penny.

You noted that the cheese was only like your average size of a cheese stick.

It was the breading.

How did they get the breading so thick on there?

It was like butter.

They put it in butter.

Yeah, just fried out.

This was the Korean equivalent of deep fried Oreos.

Oh, oh.

That was the most interesting part of the game.

It was savory because it's cheese.

It was delicious.

It was deep fried Oreos sweet.

It was the savory.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, it didn't really have a sweetness.

The dressing gave it a little bit of sweetness.

And they had all kinds of sauces out there.

You could pour on.

I was already nervous.

Yes, too much.

Yeah.

So I think it's time, we can say.

So the bottom, no, top of the ninth, top of the ninth.

I'm going to read these off because I can't even describe it.

So, okay, it starts with a bun.

Hit the most beautiful bun you ever see.

Roll right up the first baseline.

So, and by the new picture, terrible idea, that kind of comes in and promptly gives up a bun ground ball.

Single.

Not really his fault.

Second batter.

Walk.

Third batter pops out on an infield fly.

So, really, the only out that they'd made so far, I tried explaining the infield fly rule to you.

Like batter didn't even, or feel it didn't even have to catch the ball.

That was the only out that we saw before things started to come loose.

So then they had a double steel.

So now it's second and third.

Another walk.

By the way, that's pictures, seven walks in the game.

And nationals hit into four double plays.

Like you're not going to win when you hit into four double plays and give up seven walks.

And if that's your key staff of the game.

So pitching change.

Tom Cosgrove comes in to replace Kranik.

It promptly hits the next batter.

That forces in a run.

Now it's two to one Washington.

Next batter.

Sacrifice fly.

I thought that was going to dunk in the game.

It's going to go right there.

Sacrifice fly.

Center field it catches the ball.

But run scores.

And the runner was on second.

Tags up and moves to third.

Center field, or throws the ball into the dugout.

So ball out of play.

Runners can advance again.

So that meant that runner who tagged up on second actually ended up scoring on that play as well.

So now it's three to Miami.

Another walk.

And then I'm reading the ticker here.

It just says Jacob Marcy steals home.

Hernandez steals second base.

This was the dumbest play I ever saw.

So now I've never been out there.

I majly like mine before.

But how can I even describe this?

You're the pitcher.

And you see that the batter from first breaks towards second base.

And you're thinking, wait a minute, I could throw this guy out.

But there's a guy on third.

This was straight Bush league.

Like Lily.

You can't even call this Lily play.

Straight Bush league play like you'd see in a movie or something.

Runner on third starts a break for home.

Pitcher thinks about throwing home also.

And then thinks about the runner between first and second.

Thinks about there was a lot of thinking going on in this team.

And it's what's making none of this throwin'.

Yeah.

And it happened.

The thing that is straight up nightmare where you think you're going to throw here.

Think you're going to go throw there.

And you're just totally frozen by indecision.

And you look around, wait a minute, the dust clears in both runners score.

Like the batters, they're the runner on third steals home.

The runner on first ends up stealing second.

And it's like the pitcher eats the ball.

How did that happen?

How did that happen?

And two seconds later the batter hits a home run.

And now it's six to two.

And we left.

And I was glad that Washington did not come back to win that game because I would have been upset.

Yeah, so it's yeah, six to two.

We left six hundred answered runs in the ninth inning.

That wasn't going to get it done.

Never mind the walks in double place.

But I had a fun day at the ballpark with you.

You never asked me for the iPad once.

Like we were interested in seeing the game.

It was it was good.

It was a great game right up until the top of the ninth inning.

And then the NAS went all NAS on us.

So I got to think about something that's got nothing to do with baseball.

Because I open this drawer.

You're going to see some got nothing to do with baseball.

I have two spoons.

One, two.

And I'm going to pull out here.

This is talked about 2020, 2026 items.

I've got, now you know a jealous, right?

You know what Dr. Pepper is, right?

Oh, yeah.

Now, okay.

You've seen this?

That there is now a Dr. Pepper Jello.

I wish I could hold this up.

It's like, no, I didn't just make this myself in my refrigerator.

Like this is a commercially licensed product.

Yeah, I'm like, you could make this.

Yeah, all right.

So yeah, if I pop this or all right, there we go.

All right, here I get the music going.

This is official Dr. Pepper Jello made by the fine folks at Stackpack.

Yeah, the little lunch box Jello.

So, all right, I'm going to take a taste of this.

All right, get a little Dr. Pepper Jello.

You're taking the first bite on that.

It tastes like Dr. Pepper.

It's actually really good.

Just don't think about it too much.

It's pretty good.

Imagine if you made Dr. Pepper into Jello.

Wow, there it is.

What would it taste like?

Don't say it.

They did a fateful job here at the Dr. Pepper Jello.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Yeah.

Take another sip here.

Yeah, don't spill it all over my podcast studio.

What do you say?

It's pretty good.

It's pretty good.

It tastes like Dr. Pepper Jello.

Frank and I enjoyed having it on show.

You know, maybe this is one we could pitch to the people at the National Park.

Maybe they'd sell this in a future concession.

This was a lot of fun talking about the game.

It didn't turn out as I thought.

Well, we'll have to go to another game sometime.

So you may listen to Matthew Meuders.

My name is Michael Connell.

For more information to contact, you can go to micoconnelljuner.com.