The Nats certainly could have used a nice refresher early in the week as they were swept by the Red Sox and fell 7 games behind the Braves in the NL East. The Nats were only able to score 7 runs in that series, which included a shutout in the last game, that led to Max Scherzer calling a players only meeting. The meeting must have worked because the Nats went 3-1 against the Marlins in their next series scoring a total of 37 runs and coming back from the largest deficit in Nationals history (9-0) in the first game of the series. The Nats hitters woke up against the lowly Marlins pitching staff, and there were some hitters who had an absolutely monster week at the plate.
Trea Turner and Mark Reynolds both had 2 home run games this week, with Trea Turner doing it in the comeback game on Thursday. Turner hit his first career grand slam in that game that put the Nationals ahead 10-9, and he registered 8 RBI's in that game. Turner's weekly OPS continues to be respectable at a .833, and he was even able to go 3 for 7 this week with runners in scoring postion. Not to be outdone was Mark Reynolds who hit 2 home runs this past Saturday in an 18-4 drubbing of the Marlins. Reynolds also went 5 for 5 in that game with 10 RBI, which is only the fourth time that has happened in MLB history. Reynolds was not a one hit wonder this week, however, going 10 for 14 (5 for 6 with runners in scoring position) with 12 RBI, 3 HR including a walk off HR on Friday Night, an OPS of 2.26, and he even pitched and got the last out for the Nats in a 10-2 loss on Sunday.
Turner and Reynolds were the leaders of an offensive explosion as all players were able to get at least one RBI this week, except for Michael Taylor, there were five Nats who hit over .300 (Reynolds, Turner, Adams, Goodwin, Taylor), and there were five players who had an OBP of over .400 this week (Reynolds, Adams, Soto, Goodwin, Taylor, Harper). Harper's OBP this week should be a sign that he needs to be hitting higher in the lineup. In his last 57 plate appearances he has an OBP of .473, but he has only hit .210 in that same sample size. Bryce should be hitting either first or second in the lineup in order to get on base for the likes of Matt Adams, Mark Reynolds, and Anthony Rendon who should be in the three or four spot whenever they are in the lineup. Reynolds' sample size maybe small, but his slugging percentage was a 1.5 this week, and Adams was 0.533. The Nats will need to generate more runs as the pitching staff continues to suffer; Literally and figuratively.
Erick Fedde had to leave the 3-0 loss to Boston in the first inning with shoulder soreness, and while the MRI came back negative it is not a good sign for the Nats starting pitching when Strasburg's timetable for return in unknown. That led to a week where the Nats bullpen threw a whopping 29.2 innings this week with some good and some bad. The bullpen threw four scoreless innings on Friday Night in the 3-2 walk off win, but they also gave up 6 runs in 5 innings in a 10-2 loss on Sunday. Ryan Madson was the leader in futility going only 0.2 innings with 4 ER on Sunday, and he got the loss on Wednesday against the red Sox. Since June 4 Madson has thrown 10 innings of relief with an ERA of 8.44 and a WHIP of 2.15. Madson may have been the works offender this week, but most of the Nats pitching took their lumps this week in their appearances. Evidence of this was the fact that Shawn Kelley was the only Nats pitcher, starter or reliever, to throw 5 or more innings this week and not give up an earned run. This may say more about the bullpen than the starting pitching, but the starters were OK at best this week. Of the three wins the Nats had this week only one went to a starter and that was Max Scherzer on Saturday. The other starters this week were shaky at best with Gio needing 114 pitches to get out of 5 innings in the 3-2 win on Friday, Jeremy Hellickson made his return this week and was responsible for all 9 runs in the comeback win on Thursday, and Tanner Roark pitched 11 innings this week giving up 20 hits, 13 ER, and he was charged with 2 losses.
Here's hoping that the Nats starters can get it together this coming week considering they are still 5 games back of the Braves, but with Jeffrey Rodriguez getting the start tonight expect a high flying affair. In Rodriguez's last two starts he threw 9 combined innings and gave up 9 runs, but the Nats won both games. Lucky for Rodriguez that the Nats have the Pirates for a three game series, and then travel to the Big Apple to face the bottom feeding Mets. After this week the Nats will have not had a day off since June 27, so grab some 16 Bar Stools and have one for the Nats as they continue to grind and get back into first place in the NL East.
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