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The Washington Nationals have played their last game at Nats Park in Southeast until after the mid-season All-Star break.
That sentence requires some nuance because yesterday was not the Nats' last home game before the break. They will finish a game against the Houston Astros which, on May 5 with the scored tied at 10, was suspended in the bottom of the 11th inning due to rain here in Washington.
The oddity is: The game will be finished in Houston with the Nationals picking up with they left off: One out, runner on first (which was Elijah Dukes who is no longer with the team) and Josh Willingham (who is still with the team) at bat.
As you are all too aware, your Washington Nationals have the worst record in baseball. Again. They finished last season with the worst record, as well, (59-102) and were rewarded with the number one pick in the draft a couple of weeks ago.
After beating the Atlanta Braves two-out-of-three over the weekend, they leave with a record of 24-55. Extended to a full 182-game season that would lead to a season record of 49-113.
While that would be 11 games worse than last year, there is a sense that the Nationals may have reached a pivot point. Of the 12 pitchers who were on the Major League roster at the beginning of the season, only five are there now and only two of the five who were in the starting rotation on opening day.
The average age of the five starters is 24: Two are 23, one is 24, and two are 25. With a rotation that young, the feeling is, they will get better as the season goes along. That means going deeper into games and not having the lapses in concentration which have cost so many games.
Offensively, going into Sunday's game the Nats were carrying a team batting average of .258 which is good enough for seventh place among the 16 National League clubs. The problem (see above) is that the pitchers have allowed opposing batters to hit at a .279 clip which is worst in the league and also own NL's worst Earned Run Average at 5.23.
That's why having the young pitchers develop over the second half of the season may make a huge difference in the performance of the club.
Extra Innings:
Friday night was the Washington debut of centerfielder Nyjer Morgan who came over in a trade with the Pirates. The fans below the press box, trying to make him feel welcome, chanted: "LET's go, NEW guy" in that sing-song way when he led off the game for the Nats. (That, by the way, is A-F#; A-F# for those of you scoring at home.) New Guy Morgan responded by reaching on a walk, stealing second and coming in to score the first run of the game on a single by Willingham.
On Sunday afternoon pitcher Scott Olsen (one of the 25-year-olds) walked two straight after getting two out in the top of the 8th with the Nats leading 4-1. As Manager Manny Acta came out of the dugout, the crowd thinking he was going to pull Olsen for a relief pitcher, began to applaud Olsen's effort. When Acta left him in the crowd roared its approval. Olsen responded by striking out the next batter on four pitches to end the inning.
-- Rich Galen
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