Craft Beer of the Week (8/18)

The Craft Beer of the Week comes from the very familiar Heavy Seas Brewery in Baltimore, MD.  What may not be as familiar is their Cutlass Amber Lager, but it may be the best beer in their rotation.  It has a nice amber color that is accompanied by a refreshing crisp taste and a smooth malty flavor.  Good for any season, and better than the more common Loose Cannon, pick up a six pack of Cutlass if you're over 21 and enjoy all that Heavy Seas has to offer.  While you're at it, celebrate the Nats and their six game win streak as well.

Weekly Record: 6-0
Overall Record: 69-53
Standings: 1st in the NL East by 6 games over the Braves

The Nats swept both series this week against the Mets and Pirates to increase their lead in the NL East to six games, and they did so in a fashion that makes you think that this team may be building the moxy and resiliency it will need to make a long playoff run.  They won two games despite Rafael Soriano giving up a run in the bottom of the ninth with a two run lead, and they had two walk-off wins to end the week. One came on Saturday off of a Wilson Ramos double that drove in Bryce Harper.  The other came Sunday against the Pirates where the Nats squandered at 4-2 lead in the top of the ninth after Soriano gave up 3 runs in 0.2 innings.   Lucky for Soriano that Jayson Werth was feeling good enough to get on base to score both the tying run off of an Asdrubal Cabrera single, and the winning run off of a Scott Hairston sacrifice fly.  Wins are wins, though, and it is scary to think that they are on this streak without Werth or Ryan Zimmerman in the lineup. 

Happy firsts to Michael Taylor and Asdrubal Cabrera.  Taylor hit is first major league home run this week against the Mets on Tuesday, and Cabrera hit his first home run as a National the very next day.  Cabrera also hit .300 this week with a .391 OBP from the second spot in the lineup. Who was the genius who suggested that happen? It was Adam LaRoche, though, who came up big again this past week.  LaRoche hit two more home runs to go along with 6 RBI's, and his 7 walks gave him an OBP of .480 for the week.  Over the last 13 games LaRoche has hit 5 home runs and 10 RBI's.  If Harper can continue to hit 7 RBI's every week, and Ramos can hit .381 the rest of the way, that back half of the lineup gets to be as scary in real life as they are on paper.  And just think what will happen when Werth and Zimmerman come back into the regular rotation.  It would not be too shabby to have Cabrera come off the bench to add an incredible layer of depth to the infield. 

As I write this the Nats are in the top of the 11th inning against the Diamondbacks who have the bases loaded with no outs (C'mon Craig Stammen).  Lets hope they can come through and extend this win streak to seven games, and start this week's seven game home stand on a high note.