As a team that featured tremendous pitching and a potent offense, all of the experts had the Washington Nationals finishing in first place in the NL East before the start of the season. The first three weeks of the season for the Nationals did not go as planned though as they owners a 7-13 record in their first 20 games.
But the night of April 28th was the night that turned everything around for the Nationals. On a road game against the Atlanta Braves, Washington pulled an incredible comeback overcoming an 8 run deficit that was topped off by a game winning three run home run by Dan Uggla in the ninth inning.
That has been Uggla’s only home run so far this season, but since that game the Nationals did not lose a series until a recent sweep provided by the Cincinnati Reds on May 29-May 31. After battling some early injuries and slumps, Washington slowly started to turn their season around and are now in a position to quickly take off in their division.
The biggest contributor to the Nationals’ success… Bryce Harper! Harper was the one who carried the offense in a moment where the team was struggling to score runs. The 22 year old outfielder just finished what was a historic month of May in which he hit for a .360 batting average, with 13 home runs and 28 RBIs. Let’s also take into consideration that he walked (22) more than he struck out (17). His overall stats are now a .325 batting average, 18 home runs, and 43 RBIs. Harper leads the National League in home runs (18), runs scored (43), slugging percentage (.718), and walks (45) as he is certainly in the mix for the NL MVP award.
On the pitching side, the Nationals suffered a big blow with an injury to Stephen Strasburg, who is now on the disabled list. On the bright side, Max Scherzer has been having a great season. Although he has a 6-4 record, Scherzer is pitching much better than what his record shows. He has a 1.85 ERA in 77.2 innings pitched. The lowest ERA Scherzer has ever recorded in a full season was in his Cy Young Award winning year in 2013 with the Detroit Tigers, in which he had a 2.90 ERA. He has also accumulated 90 strike outs and has held opponents to a .202 batting average. As the season progresses we can expect to see Scherzer’s record improve as the Nationals plan to do the same as well.
It is always a great luxury to have a pitcher to go to in the ninth inning to close a game, and Drew Storen has been that pitcher. After some doubt of who would be the closer for the Nationals, Storen has stepped up and taken over the role. He once had the closer role and went through some rough stretches where he eventually lost the position, but this season he has regained his dominant form. Storen has a total of 17 saves with a very minuscule 0.81 ERA in 22.1 innings pitched.
Other everyday players like Yunel Escobar and Denard Span have also been very consistent and have helped to deepen the Nationals lineup. Overall, this team should continue to be a force and if they get in another groove like they did in the month of May, they could easily run away with the NL East division as the Mets and Braves have not shown enough consistency and the Marlins and Phillies have struggled mightily.