Three Beautiful Things 10/30/19: Ellie is Back Home, Youth and Experience, Rum and Hot Chocolate

1. Last week, on Tuesday, Ellie, our newborn granddaughter, was admitted into a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit near where Adrienne and Josh live. She underwent a series of tests and was under observation until Tuesday of this week when she was cleared to return home.

It's been an anxious and exhausting week, especially for Adrienne and Josh. Debbie boarded a plane late Thursday night last week and is in New York helping out. Molly is also there. Members of Josh's family have also been on hand. 

For now, I don't have a firm enough understanding of the situation to write in any detail about it.

I am writing this to let anyone reading this know that Ellie has had difficulties, that she's home after a week in NICU, and that Debbie and Molly are in New York.

2. I sat speechless in the Vizio room tonight, thrilled.

The Nationals struggled for 7 and 1/3 innings to solidly hit the crafty deliveries of Astro pitcher, Zach Greinke. Then, with one out in the seventh, the eerily calm Anthony Rendon launched Greinke's one mistake into the left field seats and cut the Astro's lead to 2-1. Greinke thought he'd struck out Juan Soto, but the home plate umpire didn't see it that way.  Soto walked.

Greinke got pulled.

A tired Will Harris took the mound and Howie Kendrick slammed a Harris cutter that hung on the outer edge of the plate the opposite way, down the right field line. The ball struck the foul pole. It was fair. I yelped, "OH MY GOD!"

Howie had just hit another dramatic home run to put the Nationals up by a run, a lead they added to in the next couple of innings and the Washington Nationals won their fourth straight game in Houston's ball park, this one 6-2, and won the World Series.

When Max Scherzer took the mound tonight, no one knew what to expect. Just a few days ago, he was suffering spasms in his back and neck that were so severe he couldn't dress himself. He underwent intense treatments, was administered a cortisone shot, somehow recovered, and delivered a gutty five inning performance tonight. Every inning, the Astros had men on base and, time after time, Scherzer pitched out of jams, only surrendering two runs when he could have easily given up six or seven. Patrick Corbin then pitched three innings of stingy relief, shutting out the Astros, and Daniel Hudson closed out the game, retiring the dangerous Springer, Altuve, and Brantley in order.

Back a couple of weeks ago, I wrote how much I enjoyed the Nationals' blend of young and very experienced players. I hadn't realized when I wrote those words that the Nationals were the oldest team in the majors. Tonight, they got great play out of the young (Soto and Rendon and Corbin) and the old (Scherzer and Kendrick) and, after the game, player after player remarked how much the Nationals' success grew out of the enthusiasm the younger player injected into the team and out of the instruction the older players passed on to the kids.

It was thrilling.

3. I say when it's cold in Kellogg and the World Series is being played at night, fix a couple of cheater Red Hook pint glasses full of hot chocolate and rum.