After being swept by the St. Louis Cardinals over the weekend, the much hyped Nationals, picked by a majority of sports pundits as World Series favorites, have sputtered and gasped to an unfortunate 10-11 record to start the 2013 season. Issues abound with this team. The vaunted starting rotation has been shelled on a fairly regular basis, and the bullpen, once the real strength of this team, has been horrid. The defense until recently has been very sloppy; compiling a league leading 19 errors. And the offense? Well, the team has scored a measly 4 runs in the past 30 or so innings. Punchless doesn't even come close to describing the misery at the plate these days.
We are 21 games into the season. While it is still early - there are 141 games still to be played - there is reason to be worried. The Nats next two series are against the Reds and Braves who are both playing great baseball at the moment. Those are 8 games that, if the Nats don't get their act together, could start a death spiral from which the team may not be able to recover.
I'm not willing to throw in the towel just yet. Baseball is a finicky sport. Teams get hot and cold. Often it's not the best team, but the hottest team, at the end of the season that wins the championship. As Tommy Lasorda once said, “No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one third of your games. No matter how bad you are, you're going to win one third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference."
GO NATS!!
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