Republicans Rout Dems for Fifth Straight Year in Congressional Baseball Game
WASHINGTON — The Republicans won the Congressional Baseball Game for the fifth straight year Wednesday night, pummeling the Democrats, 13-2 at Nationals Park.
As he seems to do every year, Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., pitched five strong innings for the GOP, giving up the Democrats’ two runs, but also getting seven strikeouts.
About the closest the Republicans — all decked out in red and wearing MAGA hats — were to trouble was in the first inning, when the Democrats loaded the bases with two outs.
The threat ended when Rep. August Pfulger, R-Texas, pulled off a thrilling diving play at third base, keeping a hard hit ball from leaving the infield and then leaping to third base to get the advancing runner out.
Pfluger would later be given the game’s Most Valuable Player award.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., officially took the loss for Democrats, giving up all of the GOP’s 13 runs in six innings, but he was also undermined by a throwing error in the second inning that allowed the first Republican to cross home plate.
However, things got much worse in the third inning, when the Republicans scored five runs, and then in the fourth, the GOP blew the game wide open by rallying with another five runs.
The Republicans added their final two runs in the sixth inning, after Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, came into the game as a pinch runner and scored all the way from second base.
The Democrats scored all their runs in the third inning, thanks in part to an RBI triple by Rep, Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky.
Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., closed out the game on the mound for the GOP, striking out Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., to end this year’s contest.
Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, a former minor leaguer and coach for Texas Christian University was this year’s coach for the Republicans, while Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., led the Democrats.
The GOP has now won the last five Congressional Baseball Games, with four blowouts in a row.
They won last year’s game, 31-11, and in 2023, won by a score of 16-6.
The 2022 game saw the GOP win by a score of 10-0, and in 2021, the first game to be held in the wake of the COVID pandemic, the Republicans won 13-12.
More than 30,000 tickets were sold for Wednesday’s game, which raised $2.81 million for local charities, including the Tim Johnson Memorial Fund, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington, and Washington Nationals Philanthropies.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
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