WASHINGTON – You could hear the slow hum of the gigantic industrial fan down the first-base line from the Nationals’ dugout on Sunday.
When home-plate umpire Laz Diaz hollered strike two – as he did with Yan Gomes at the plate in the second inning – the noise vibrated up four floors to the press box that housed only about a dozen members at the print level.
And as Stephen Strasburg took his warmup tosses before the top of the third inning, the “pop” of Gomes’ catcher’s mitt reverberated around the Navy Yard complex on an 87-degree day in the nation’s capital.