(Music Pun #4. Bit of a stretch, but it still works)
The Nationals are exactly .500. They had a really poor end-of-April stretch, they lost Adam Eaton to injuries (AGAIN), and it's only been the last week or so of surprisingly hard-fought games that have brought them back to the bubble. Yes, they are still in fourth place, and 3 games out of first, but the drive that these Nationals teams usually have is slowly returning.
It's thanks in part to the stellar work from the rotation. Max Scherzer is having YET ANOTHER fantastic season, with a low era, six wins, and 65 strikeouts. And it's frigging May. The guy is just showing off at this point, especially considering that Clayton Kershaw just landed on the DL after 3 poor starts. We've known that Scherzer is one of the best pitchers in the NL for a while now, and this season is not only cementing that fact, but the fact that Scherzer might seriously be a Hall of Famer. The guy's had two 20-win seasons in a career based in an era of baseball straying away from 20-win seasons, he's gotten top-5 Cy Young votes every year since 2013, and he's only 33. The guy's a legend in the making, and we're just watching the highlight reel at this point.
The rest of the rotation is also fantastic- Stephen Strasburg, Tanner Roark, Gio Gonzalez and the newly-resuscitated Jeremy Hellickson are all doing pretty well, and would be highlights on a rotation that didn't have Scherzer on it.
The lineup's only alright at the moment, with only Bryce Harper's home runs and some great Trea Turner stuff standing out. But this is still a promising team that could be up there with the big guns in this division very, very soon. The Braves might need to watch out.
Coming Tonight: I got this guy's autograph last year at Spring Training, and now he's having a great all-around season for a team that's trying to come back.
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