Stephen Strasburg Was Dominant As He And Jayson Werth Carried The Nats to Another Win

Werth after his tie-breaking 2-run triple

The Nationals beat the Rockies 4-1 last night thanks to another excellent outing by Stephen Strasburg who really has come back in a big way since his return from the DL. A great takeaway from the game is the Nats walked 9 times. In their big 15-6 win the night previous, 10 batters took their base. When you are that patient (or the pitching is that bad), its almost impossible to lose. We all know how tough this past month has been for the Nationals but I really think the team has really climbed out of rock bottom. And if rock bottom is one game below .500 then I take that in a heartbeat. Now, it goes without saying that the Rockies are not a spectacular team, but one also can’t discount a win because it was against a crappy team – a win is a win.

Stephen Strasburg pitched 7 virtually flawless innings allowing 2 hits, 1 unearned run, and striking out 5. Had the Nats lost due to that unearned run, I think it could have forced me to lose all faith in this team – the run scored in the 2nd inning in this fashion: error by Zimmerman places runner at 2nd, grounder adcances the runner, and a wild pitch scores him. The score remained 1-0 Rockies until a wildpitch of their own allowed Bryce to score.

The 2nd consecutive win (pushing the Nationals to just 3.5 back of NY) is very encouraging, but the most encouraging notes from the two games are that new leadoff hitter Jayson Werth has two straight multi-hit games and has seen his average climb from .184 to .197. I said yesterday that good production from Werth could be a game-changer in the Nationals’ race for a playoff spot. Yunel Escobar, who had struggled to hit since being snubbed from the All-Star Game, has also turned it around this series and now has got 5 knocks in his past 7 ABs.

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Strasburg has been Cy Young since June and now has an out of this world 1.26 ERA since returning from that first stint on the DL. I really wonder what the Nats season would look like right now if he couldve stayed healthy. Regardless, 6 outings of 1.26 ERA ball and more than 10 Ks per 9 should make you pretty excited for a potential playoff series (since his return from his 2nd DL stay, he has a 1.35 ERA and 11.25 k/9 in 20.1 IP).

I stressed yesterday just how much baseball there is to still play. And let us not forget how good the Nats rotation can be when healthy. Scherzer is cashing 20 million dollar paychecks for a reason, Strasburg is an ace right now, Zimmermann will continue to produce, Gio has just once clunker since the break, and I believe in Joe Ross. The Nationals’ rotation has underperformed throughout the year but all the signs are there that they will pitch as advertised for the final 43 games. Combine that with Harper, an improved Werth and Zimmerman, and the rest of the Nationals’ lineup, and you’ve got a playoff team; the only glaring weakness is the skipper.

I’m the new Nats writer, follow me @NatsBarstool