| Year | First Sweep |
|---|---|
| 2011 | April 15-17 (vs Mil) |
| 2010 | June 8-10 (vs Pit) |
| 2009 | August 4-6 (vs Fla) |
| 2008 | June 13-15 (@Sea) |
| 2007 | May 11-13 (vs Fla) |
| 2006 | May 23-25 (vs Hou) |
| 2005 | April 14-17 (vs Ari) |
Notice the dates for those series sweeps. Except for their inaugural 2005 season, the Nationals never achieved their first sweep until at least a couple of months into the season. (Essentially when their season was already over).
Last year (2010), their first sweep wasn't until June against the Pirates, who at the time were essentially a minor league AAAA team. And the first game of that particular series? Stephen Strasburg's astonishing major league debut. So of course the team was clearly just riding along the awesome train for that sweep.
Also notice, all of their first sweeps are at home, except in 2008 against Seattle. But the 2008 Mariners team was the second worst team in baseball. Just slightly ahead of who? The Nationals of course. So that series doesn't even count as games played.
So here's what I'm getting at: getting this first sweep just 3 weeks into the season shows the turn around this team is going through. The Nationals may only have a handful of popular players, but they're the only team in MLB who has gotten 5 or more IPs from their starting pitchers in every game so far. They have 3 relievers contending for the closer spot. They have a clear candidate for Rookie of the Year in 2B Danny Espinosa (I used to watch him play in Potomac). Ryan Zimmerman is a back-to-back Silver Slugger (and should be back-to-back Gold Glover). Their only blowout this year was an 11-2 loss to the Braves in their opening weekend. But that's nothing to be ashamed about. They even had somewhat respectable losses to Philadelphia's kings Lee and Halladay.
Don't get me wrong, the Nats aren't making the playoffs this year or next, because as an NL East team, you have to win the division to make the playoffs since there are too many other good teams out west. But when Ryan Zimmerman comes off the DL, and Strasburg makes it back into the rotation next season, and big shot Jayson Werth picks up his bat some more, this team is going to be great. And they're going to be great quickly, and they're going to be great for a long time. Jump on the bandwagon now and start supporting the Nationals. Tickets to the games are fair priced (especially from StubHub) and the stadium is gorgeous, and it's a fun time for everybody, so go hit up some games (might I suggest April 30 for free umbrella day against the reigning World Series champs?)
The Nats are off today, with away series at St. Louis (where Carpenter won't be pitching this series and Pujols is in a slump) and Pittsburgh. Expect the Nationals to come back home next week to face the Mets with a positive attitude and a contending winning average.
It is nice to see Danny Espinosa break out after everyone was waiting on Ian Desmond. I didn't get to see the Nationals this weekend because of hockey, but I would like to also point out that at some point next year, Bryce Harper is expected to play for this team in the outfield, most likely LF since Werth is in right and Morse and Nix are not performing consistently nor hitting lefties.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point, but he's not guaranteed to come up yet. His minor league season so far hasn't been that great, just 1 home run, and twice as many strike outs as walks (12 v 6). However, with Rodriguez about to retire, expect Derek Norris to find his way up as a back-up to Wilson Ramos at catcher. <-- This result will be fantastic.
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