Photo used under a Creative Commons license with MissChatter.Aside from it being $1 hot dog night, there wasn’t much joy to be found at Nationals Park yesterday. It was barely 55 degrees at game time, and within innings, the temperature was dropping and the wind whipping up, making a late-April game feel about as warm as a dreary October memory. Naturally, the Nationals’ opponents last night were the St. Louis Cardinals.
In their first meeting since a night that is best left forgotten under an ocean of distilled spirits, the Cardinals again topped the Nationals, 3-2. Another cold night, another Cardinals win. And the Nationals’ third loss in four games and fourth consecutive home loss, sagging the record of the presumptive National League frontrunners to a barely floating 10-9.
But how did Davey Johnson react to this latest blow? With a set of push-ups in the Nationals’ dugout. As the game ended, MASN’s cameras caught the 70-year-old manager—yeah, he’s 70 and gritty as ever—doing some reps against the team bench before heading back to the clubhouse.
The Nats are struggling right now, and the toughest guy on the team is their flinty old manager.