The smoke from Frager’s Hardware hung omniously behind Nationals Park last night as the Washington Nationals feel to the New York Mets 8-1. Dan Haren gave up 3 home runs. When he’s bad, he’s bad and last night he was bad. A splitter that stayed high erased the earlier DC lead and a 10-1 followed.
It seems like a typical series for the Nats of late has been a win in a game one and then a pair of losses — one close one and one blowout, not necessarily in that order. Tonight, we’ll find out how it concludes. If the Nats can win, it will be their first series win in a few weeks. Some troubling observations:
#Nats won back-to-back games vs. #SFGiants and #Phillies two weeks ago, but there was an off-day in between those wins.
— Joe Drugan (@TheNatsBlogJoe) June 6, 2013
Last time #Nats won back-to-back games on back-to-back days: May 16-17 vs. #Padres. That’s 3 weeks ago.
— Joe Drugan (@TheNatsBlogJoe) June 6, 2013
Injuries (DL trips for Ryan Zimmerman, Jayson Werth, Bryce Harper and now Stephen Strasburg) have played a part in this season of mediocrity (or worse), but the bigger issues are a lack of hitting, particularly with runners in scoring position and inattention to details. It took until June 4 to have a walk-off win or come back after the 6th inning. In a lot of ways, the Nats are lucky to be a mere game under .500.
The schedule gets seemingly more favorable for a long stretch, but 8 games back, they have a long road ahead. I’m sure the Nats have a few 7 game winning streaks and maybe 10 of 12 run in them, but when it happens, will they be too far back? On a more positive note:
#Nats now need to bank about 4 games over .500 each month til the end of the season. June is already slipping away. Runs & wins now.
— BallWonk (@ballwonk) June 6, 2013
So, a run is completely doable in theory, but either way 2013 is a lot less fun than 2012 so far.