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.

Craft Beer of the Week (8/4)

The Craft Beer of the Week comes from the Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, Missouri.  Their Double-Wide IPA is an awesome example of an IPA that has flavor other than just hops.  It has a bold sweet finish that is hinted at by the beer's medium caramel color, and it still has the hops for the IPA enthusiast.  Definitely worth a try for those who are looking for a new flavor of IPA, or for those who like a sweet taste to the beer without too much hops.  Double-Wide IPA is 8.5%, so be careful not to get caught up in the amazing taste of this beer.  Double-Wide is the theme for the Nationals this week as they doubled up positively in some areas and negatively in others.

Weekly Record: 3-4

Overall record: 60-49
Standings: 1st in NL East by 3.5 games over the Braves

The standings say it all.  Have a Double-Wide IPA to celebrate the Nats doubling their lead over the Braves in the NL East despite losing their first series post All-Star break to the Marlins, and having a week where they did not win at least one series since the week of May19th.  Hopefully you ordered a double-tall Double-Wide IPA this week whenever the bullpen was called up, because you probably needed the extra booze to ease the pain. The lauded Nationals bullpen threw 16 innings this week,  gave up 14 earned runs, blew a 6-2 lead after the 7th inning in Miami that lead to Rafael Soriano's fourth blown save of the season (where he gave up four earned runs in 0.1 innings), and generally not throwing well enough to support the Nationals starters who gave up 2 or less earned runs in six of the seven games this week.  Tyler Clippard cannot be expected to carry the bullpen for 50 more games, so the bullpen needs to come alive again.  Finally, have a Double-Wide IPA to celebrate Jordan Zimmerman's 50th career win in an 11-0 drubbing of the Phillies, to send off Zach Walters to Cleveland for new second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera and to wish Ryan Zimmerman an undisclosed amount of time for his speedy recovery.  Cabrera had a tough time this week at the plate (2 for 13), but he made some nice plays in the field that causes less worry about Zimmerman's timetable for return.

The Nats hitters had a rough five game stretch between the Marlins series and the first two games of the Philly series.  Through those five games they were 1-4, being outscored 15-25, and hitting .219 as a team. They finally pulled their heads out of their asses for the last two games to earn a split with the Phillies in dominant fashion with two shutout wins (11-0 and 4-0) and hitting .298 during those two games.  The Nats continued their dominance when scoring four or more runs as well.  The Nats are now 51-6 when scoring four or more runs and 9-43 when scoring less than four runs.  All the more reason to bring in a 40 RBI hitter like Cabrera to boost the offense while Zimmerman is away, and to read the riot act to the bullpen to not lose some of these close games.  Finally, the two hottest Nats this week have a win/loss stat all to themselves.  Denard Span and Anthony Rendon both scored runs in the win against the Phillies on Sunday, which makes the Nats 32-2 this year when both Span and Rendon cross home plate in the same game.  Lucky for the Nats that Span had his third consecutive week of having an OBP above .400, he has reached base in 29 consecutive games (the longest streak in MLB), and he had five more stolen bases this week to give him 23 for the season.  Rendon hit .300 this week, including four doubles, and had an OBP of .343.  A message to Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche: Span and Rendon will get on base, you need to get these guys home.  Finally, credit needs to be given to Danny Espinosa and Bryce Harper for having a quietly productive week.  Espinosa went 5-14 with 3 RBI's and was 2-5 with runners in scoring position.  Harper was not so hot with runners in scoring position (1-8), but he quietly hit .318 this week with 3 outfield assists and had an OBP of .375.  The front of the order maybe getting the spotlight, but if these guys can keep it up in the back end the Nats will be a formidable opponent come September/October.

A huge NL East week coming up as the Nats host the Mets for three games before going to Atlanta for a season defining series.  If the Nats can go into Atlanta and up their lead to 4 or 5 games over the Braves this week it may start putting the Braves on the hot seat with only 45 games left.  It all starts with a make up game against the Orioles so lets hop the Nats can put more distance between them and the rest of the NL East this week.