Before the first pitch was thrown at Wednesday afternoon’s Washington Nationals-Colorado Rockies game, the Nats recorded a huge morale-boosting win.
After the national anthem wrapped up and the players returned to their respective dugouts, Washington’s Aaron Barrett and Colorado’s Brandon Barnes remained on the field, as they engaged in a lengthy and fiercely competitive standoff.
The two stood like statues, holding their poses from the Star-Spangled Banner with their hats over their hearts and their hands behind their backs, daring the other to admit defeat first.
Things got pretty serious pretty fast when teammates from both sides started jumping in to offer their help. Barrett received the most support from his guys as they provided him with water, fanned him off, applied sunscreen for him and Bryce Harper even contributed his elbow guard to the battle.
While Barnes attempted to end things with a rock-scissors-paper battle, Barrett wasn’t having any of it, and his patience paid off. With Barnes standing much deeper on the field, and leadoff hitter Denard Span stepping into the box to get the game underway, the home plate umpire had seen enough.
He whistled at Barnes, who attempted to point out he wasn’t the only guilty man on the field, but to no avail. Barnes retreated sadly into the dugout as Barrett and the Nationals dugout celebrated like they had just won in walk-off fashion.
[mlbvideo id=”34742755″ width=”640″ height=”360″ /]
The Rockies are leading the Nationals 4-2 in the sixth inning, though, so that might be the only victory Washington sees today.
