Opening Day

Opening Day it was indeed! :) Yesterday proved to be quiet an adventurous day for my mom and I, and not to mention-quiet frustrating at times too. What seemed to be a pretty reasonable time leaving for Atlanta turned out to be my worst nightmare. Due to my mom having to work half the day, we didn't get to leave until 1pm. We really didn't encounter any traffic problems along our way, well, up until we got on the other side of Macon. At that point everything just started going downhill. We was stuck in traffic for an hour solid on I-75, and once we got to the Turner Field exit it was around 5:30pm (which was still pretty good timing given the fact). Finding a parking spot was UNREAL! I became very ill because of the SLOW pace traffic. We ended up making two HUGE circles in order to get a spot to park, and that was because all the private lots were full and the Braves lots was for permits only! Needless to say, this opening day experience wasn't at all what I was hoping for-especially when I didn't get to my seat until the bottom of the THIRD inning! I had high hopes going into this being it's my third straight home opening game. Although this "adventure" had its many cons it also had just as many pros, and I enjoyed myself overall. :)

When I finally got to my seat and saw just how great of a view I had all that frustrating seemed to drift out of mind. I personally thought I had scored some of the best seats in the house, which I may add, the game was sold out with an attendance of 48,327. So, as I found my seat and got settled in-all of a sudden with one swing of Escobar's bat the game turned in Atlanta's favor. He hit a 3-run shot putting the Braves on top 3-1. I got to see pretty much the entirety of the bottom of the third inning, and when it came to the top of the fourth with one man on for the Nationals and one at the plate, with a 3-2 count, the umpire's called for the tarps. At that point the Braves game was in a rain delay, which came out to be 2 hours long. During the rain delay there was quiet a hail storm (2 I may add). The weather was horrible (maybe this video can give y'all some kind of an idea)! It looked like pure snow falling.

After the rain delay, the Braves resumed action at 10:40pm. Unfortunately, the rain delay forced Derek Lowe out of the game and in came Buddy Carlyle. The game was awesome! Although, at times, the Braves bullpen would allow the Nats to either tie up or take the lead, they wouldn't let that put a damp on their game play. The bottom of the seventh inning finally came around a little after 12am. As much as I would have loved to stay and watch the entire game-I made myself get up, so my mom and I could start heading home (at this point it was 12:30am). I, of course, listened to the game as I was driving home. Due to a blown save by Gonzales in the ninth inning-this home opening game wasn't over yet. When the bottom of the tenth inning rolled around Jordan Schafer lead the inning off with a single, the next two were quickly retired, and Kelly Johnson was up to bat. He stroked a solid single to right. With Schafer's speedy-self, he slide across home plate with the walk-off winning run at 1:25am. The final score was Braves 6-Nationals 5.

So, like I was saying, the day definitely had its cons but luckily the pros outweighed them all. :) I got home around 4:15am, and with only 3.5 hours of sleep it was time to get back up and get ready for a seven hour day at work.