The last time a Washington area baseball team appeared in the playoffs was 1933. The loyal fans of D.C. baseball have waited quite a long time for this magical season and now the wait is just over a week from becoming a reality.
The Washington Nationals, known by most locals as the Nats, have done their damage . Run by 69-year-old coach Davey Johnson, the team plays baseball the old fashioned way, building their success through pitching.
The team was led most of the year by star pitcher Steven Strasburg , but due to Tommy John surgery, which caused him to miss almost the entire past season, he was shut down with a little less than a month to play.
“Number two” pitcher, Gio Gonzales, has a great fastball and to complement that, one of the best curveballs in the league.
After compiling 21 wins and over 200 strikeouts, Gonzales is one of the front runners for National League Cy Young, which is awarded to the best pitcher in each league. If he wins the award he would be the first Washington pitcher to ever win the honor.
Jordan Zimmerman, Edwin Jackson and Ross Detwiler, all of whom have won at least 10 games, round out the team’s strong rotation throwing for them. Players have said Detwiler has good enough pitches to be a number two pitcher on some teams but he still lost his starting spot on the Nationals starting lineup to Chen Ming-Wang for about a month.
The pitching staff the Nats possess has a combined ERA of 3.28, which is .12 better than any other team in the NL. They have had the third most strike outs in the NL, the most quality starts and the best OBP against.
The Nationals lost last year’s closer Drew Storen for the first half of the season, but Tyler Clippard has had an all-star caliber season as Storen’s replacement. Along with Sean Burnett, one of the best set up men in the NL, the Nats have one of the strongest bullpens in the league, which is a main reason behind their newfound success.
Overshadowed by the Nats’ oustanding pitching, their hitting was one of the best in baseball.. The Nats hitters who have had fantastic years are secound in the NL in home runs, third in batting average and third in OPS.
Michael Morse, Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, Ian Desmond and Jayson Werth have all missed significant playing time due to various injuries and call ups. To the average team, losing multiple starters for an extended time would be catastrophic, but due to the great play from bench players such as Steve Lombardozzi, Tyler Moore and Rodger Bernadina, the Nats have overcome the terrible injuries.
The Nats have defied odds and are in the driver’s seat in the NL east, a division historically dominated by the perennial powerhouses in the Braves and Phillies. The Nationals, with an average age of 27.3 years, have a young starting cast that looks poised to be on top of the NL east for several years to come, and with a young and now experienced starting rotation, the Nationals look to be ready to avoid another 79 year drought.