Photo by Rachel Levitin

Happy Fourth of July to all residents in the greater D.C., Maryland, Virginia region. If you’re not already out getting your barbecue on or planting yourself atop that perfect spot on the National Mall, we do have some words from Nationals Manager Jim Riggleman regarding today’s Mets-Nats game live from the Nation’s capital on this, our Nation’s birthday:

“It’s very special. Washington was without baseball for a long time […]but Washington should have baseball. It’s a great thing that the Lerner family has brought baseball back to Washington and it’s all about what the country’s about. It’s patriotic, it’s Washington, D.C., it’s the capital, it’s baseball, it’s a beautiful day, it’s Sunday, it’s got all the making of a great day and baseball in Washington is very important, it’s our nation’s capital and it’s a perfect scenario.”

Here are today’s line up’s:

Mets: Pagan – 8, Cora – 4, Wright – 5, Davis – 4, Bay – 7, Francoeur – 9, Barajas – 2, Tejada – 6, Takahashi– 1

Nationals: Morgan – 8, Guzman – 4, Zimmerman – 5, Dunn – 4, Willingham – 7, Morse – 9, Gonzalez – 6, Nieves – 2, Stammen – 1

Stay tuned after the game for a complete recap and more from Riggleman.

Rachel Levitin

Rachel moved to DC in the fall of 2005 to study Journalism and Music at American University. When she’s not keeping up with the latest Major League Baseball news, she works on making music as an accomplished singer-songwriter and was even a featured performer/speaker at TEDxDupont Circle in 2012. Rachel has also contributed to The Washington Examiner and MASN Sports’ Nationals Buzz as a guest blogger. See why she loves DC. E-Mail: rachel@welovedc.com.