Craft Beer of the Week (7/28)

Since the Nationals have been away all week, I figured I could fight the homesickness by giving them a taste of home for the Craft Beer of the Week.  It comes from Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, Maryland.  It is called Agave Cerveza and it is the perfect summer beer. It has a light body with a lime taste to it, but not in a way that feels like you're drinking rancid lime soda like a Bud Light Lime.  The agave gives it a nice bitter sweet flavor to go along with the lime to make it a nice tasty beverage.  The refreshing taste, along with the 4.3% alcohol content, means that you should enjoy this beer as a nice summer refresher on hot barbecue days.  Get this beer while you can, though, as it is in limited release.  If you miss this beer make sure to try Flying Dog's Gonzo Porter, or another limited release made by Flying Dog and Evolution Brewery called Natural Selection Ale.  The Nationals may not need any tastes of home as they completed a successful road trip this past week.

Weekly Record: 4-2
Overall Record: 57-45
Standings: 1st place in NL East, 1.5 games ahead of Braves

This was an interesting week for the Nationals in terms of style of play.  The beginning of the week saw the Nationals in  Colorado where they faced one of the worst team ERA pitching staffs in the league.  They proceeded to hit .290 or better in all three games, and they needed it because the Nats' pitching staff had a relatively mediocre performance.  Jordan Zimmerman and Stephen Strasburg both gave up four earned runs in their starts against the Rockies, but Zimmerman was lucky enough to get the run support.  Strasburg was not so lucky, which gives him a 4-6 record with a 4.28 ERA in June and July, and he has lost 6 of his last 8 starts.  Couple that with the fact that he is 1-5 in his last 6 starts against teams with winning records (his last win against a winning team was June 9th against the Giants) and it may be time for the Nats to start getting him in the right frame of mind if they expect to make the playoffs.  But overall the Nats took two out of three games from the Rockies, and they had a chance to win the third game in the bottom of the ninth. The Reds series was quite different.

The Nats faced a much tougher pitching staff in Cincinnati and the hitting stats showed it.  The last two games in the series saw the Nats hit .148 and .161, respectively, but instead of beating the tar out of the ball the Nats were able to win on solid pitching and by getting on base.  The Nats starters (Tanner Roark, Gio Gonzalez, and Doug Fister) gave up a combined 2 ER through the entire series, and the only regular starters who had below .300 OBP this week were Adam LaRoche (.286 OBP) and Ryan Zimmerman who went on the 15 day DL after two games.  Even though they were more patient this series, the Nats still look out of sorts when trying to manufacture runs in tight games.  The second game in this series was a text book example of this manufacturing anxiety.  The Nats were down 1-0 with a chance to tie in the 9th with Ian Desmond taking a rare walk in the opening at bat.  Matt Williams decides to bunt with Bryce Harper (Cue Jimmy Dugan), who was already having a horrendous game running the bases, and who proceeded to pull up on a bunt that got Desmond thrown out stealing 2nd.  Harper struck out looking on the next pitch, Ramos struck out looking on the next at bat, and a great start from Gio Gonzalez went for naught. The Nats did come back the next day to win 4-1 on only five hits, but there needs to be more prudence in tight games.

Raise your hand if you had Tanner Roark and Doug Fister being the first two 10 game winners for the Nats, and Fister having the best ERA (2.69) of all the starters through the month of July.  Right.  If we can get Strasburg and Zimmerman back on track we may not need Denard Span to hit .434 and have a .551 OBP every week.  Span had the best hitting week of anyone by far and has silenced the detractors who were saying he should be replaced as our lead off hitter.  Keep it up Denard.  And kudos to Danny Espinosa for breaking his 0-26 slump by going 4-14 this week with 2 RBI's and a stolen base. 

The Nats continue their road trip in Miami for three games before coming home for a four game stint against the Phillies this week.  Hopefully they can pick up a few more games on the Braves who will be in California all week to face the Padres and Dodgers.  So all you 21 and overs go get some Agave Cerveza to celebrate another week atop the NL East.