The Washington Nationals: What Was Behind Their Winning Streak?

 

 

Werth has been a spark for Nats red hot play. Photo Credit:Kathy Willens/AP

 

 

The Washington Nationals have been pegged with high expectations  from the start of this season. For a good portion of this season, it looked as if the Nationals would be unable to live up to those expectations. As this month has progressed though, they came together as a unit and went on a ten game winning streak, playing their best baseball of the year. What was behind this recent surge by them? There are a couple of factors to this equation.

 

By: Michael Hanley

 

 

First, the Nationals starting rotation has gotten on  a major roll as a group. During this stretch over the ten game winning streak, they are getting dazzling performances from their starters on an almost every game basis. For example, Stephen Strasburg and Doug Fister have gone respectively 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA in two starts and 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in two starts. Those are numbers while amazing to look at and think about, its not unexpected from a team or organization point of view.

 

Strasburg has hit his stride after what has been a very up and down season so far for him. He was struggling with his control and ability to finish off  batters with the count in his favor. These factors resulted in him  having to deal with extra base runners and prolonged innings which in turn drove  up his pitch count, limiting his outings & made the bullpen have to work earlier than expected.

 

Strasburg, to his credit, has been able to steady himself in his last two starts, giving his team quality starts that have put them in great shape to win those games. He has featured much sharper pitching, hitting his targets in the strike zone, getting aggressive with batters and forcing the tone of the at bats. He has pitched more like the a frontline starter that everyone has been expecting of him this season. It is a small sample size of his season but great pitchers like him tend to build on a few high quality starts and Strasburg certainly is capable of doing just that.

 

As for Fister he continues to be the pitcher the Nationals had hoped he would be when they traded for him in December of 2013. He has made a flawless adjustment to the National League hitters coming from all those years in the American League. He has posted a 12-3 record with a sparkling 2.20 ERA, including a incredible strikeouts to walk ratio of 74/14. He has been able to get into such quick rhythm in his starts and keep that consistent pace up to where he is making the hitters have to hurry up w/ their decision to either layoff  a pitch or go attacking and try to get out in front of one.

 

The beauty of his game is his ability to take off just enough on his various pitches that it freezes up the hitter and makes them think it might be an off speed pitch when in reality its fastball that gets them to freeze for the strikeout. He will be  a major weapon for this club come postseason and could help them make a deep run in October.

 

The lineups’ ability to have timely hits has really shined during this hot stretch of play. They are not just getting all of the offensive production from one play, say like a Bryce Harper, but up and down the lineup. A player like Jason Werth who has just came back from the DL and has since hit .400 with two doubles and  3 RBIs in the five game since he resumed play.

 

Also, take  a look at who has been able to lead the walk wins the Nationals have been recently become masters of winning at. It started with Wilson Ramos hitting a double, a Scott Hairston sacrifice fly, an Adam LaRoche home run, an Anthony Rendon single and the latest walk off win on a Diamondbacks error. So you can see everyone has had a hand in the success of the team and its current hot streak.

 

Within these walk off wins, they have not only won these games with just one method, they have been able to find a variety of ways to generate runs and bring them home to win games. It shows how diversified their offense is and how many way they can go at an opposing team and beat them. They are capable of playing small ball to build a run or willing to hit a fly ball to get a runner in from third base. That type of teamwork when it comes to creating runs is so valuable and will be a huge  advantage for them  when they go into the postseason and the games become tight and more difficult to get.

 

Though Rafael Soriano has suffered three blown saves during this ten game winning streak, he and the rest of the bullpen have also been a great source of strength for this  team since the start of this season and have continued to be. They have been so consistent and effective that they can effectively shorten the game to a six or seven inning affair for Washington.

Two  big keys for that bullpen have been right hander Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen. Both pitchers have sub 2 ERAs (1.95 and 1.54 respectively) and have combined to strikeout 103 batters while only walking 31, an astronomical strikeouts to walk ratio to have. They have been the perfect bridge to get to closer Rafael Soriano in save situations.

Soriano never seems to make any of his save chances easy with his inability to throw strikes at times, lose his control and walk batters. You cannot take away though his effectiveness overall this season. He has been able to save 29 games and be reliable enough to get the job done on most nights. This bullpen will continue to stay sharp and be  a huge weapon for Manager Matt Williams to go to as the final stretch of the season arrives.

These Nationals have started to play up to their lofty potential that many people had on them at the start of this season. Their is no reason why they cannot continue this  high quality play for the rest of the regular season and make a deep run into the postseason.
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