The Nats are... winning?
Hey things happen. They've won 45 times before the last two series and as everyone says always: the worst teams in baseball win like 40% of the time, the best like 60%. The margins are slim. So enjoy some things breaking your way!
This weekend marked only the 4th time the Nats had won 3 games in a row (they haven't won 4 in a row all year) and the last time they did it two of those wins were against the Dodgers. Giant killers I tell you! (not the actual Giants - they went 2-4 against them)
Just random schedule facts on a lazy post-holiday Tuesday :
- The Nats are a much better team on the road (about a 64 win team) than home (52)
- With two more wins the Nats will match the number of wins in this month that they had in July.
- They are better at Day (20-32) than Night (28-55)
- They've actually been better then second half (67 win pace) than the first - although fewer games so this 3 game stretch was the difference between 67 and 55.
- They have a chance to go even in interleague if they sweep the Os.
- Worst recod vs an opponent this year - the Marlins and 1-12. Best? A couple of 2-1s (TEX, OAK) and 4-3s (CIN, COL). Given the schedule and the current records the only teams they can get better than +1 on are the Cardinals (currently 2-2) and the Os (1-1)
We're in the stretch run so series to watch this week to watch :
Blue Jays @ Orioles : the Jays can put the Orioles out of contention if they sweep them. And they need to to keep pace with Tampa and Seattle for WC position.
Twins @ Yankees : Yankees Twins is one of the most interesting dynamics as the Yankees have CRUSHED the Twins for a very long time. Their record against the Twins is 119-48 since 2000 which is a .712 clip. This doesn't count the 16-2 in 6 straight playoff series/games. The Twins have been mostly good in that time. The Yankees last lost a season series to the Twins in 2001 before that it was 1992. Anyway it's 3-1 Yanks this year with 3 games to go and both teams need wins. The Yanks to hold off the charging []ays duo and the Twins to try to take the central as the charging []ays duo pulls the WC further away
This weekend will give you Rays @ Yankees (another go for the Rays to run at the East), Cleveland @ Minnesota (likely to be HUGE for who wins the central), Dodgers @ Padres (Padres fighting for their WC lives against the best team in baseball), and Braves at Mariners (Atlanta going for the East, while Seattle trying to hold on to their first playoff spot in years)
3 comments:
The three wins were strong, as were most games over the past 10 days. Good pitching. Much improved fielding and base running. Ruiz is hitting well and handling the pitchers well. CJ Abrams looks to be the real thing, as does Lane Thomas. Garcia is raking.
The team is having fun.
Is the competition simply underestimating the team? Hard to say.
There's an outside chance that they don't break 100 losses. I wouldn't bet on it, but this is a watchable group.
I haven't looked at the numbers, but I feel like the big differences of late have been good luck in hit sequencing, and the bullpen actually being good. Like top 10 in baseball good. Harvey, Thompson, Finnegan, Ramirez, Edwards, all firing on all cylinders
Soto and Bell played through the August 1 game against the Mets. After that game, the Nats were 35 - 69 (.337). After Soto and Bell were traded (starting with the Aug. 2 game), the Nats are 13 - 18 (.417). Sure, small sample size and lots of variables (particularly better pitching and the remarkable story of Joey Meneses). It's not that Soto and Bell aren't terrific players (although neither is doing particularly well in San Diego). My point is that the Nats are bad either way.
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