Soriano sparks Nationals again

Perhaps one day, once the Washington Nationals have truly established themselves in this town, fans will have the foresight to plead for curtain calls from Alfonso Soriano on nights like this.

Not yet, though. When Soriano launched his 23rd homer of the season in the seventh inning — the final blow in the Nationals’ 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies — he was greeted with a nice ovation from the RFK Stadium crowd of 24,669, but nothing elaborate.

This performance deserved more, though. Seriously, what else could Soriano have done to help his team’s cause?

He came to the plate four times and scored four runs. He drew two walks, was hit by a pitch, stole a base, advanced on both a wild pitch and a balk and then capped it all off with yet another towering blast into the left-field bullpen.

“Oh man, I’m enjoying it, the way I’m playing right now,” Soriano said. “The team’s winning and I’m playing good, so I’m excited.”

Savor every moment of it, Washington, because if Soriano is indeed traded sometime in the next seven weeks, it may be some time before another player of his caliber wears the home team’s uniform.

“You better appreciate it,” manager Frank Robinson said, “because you don’t see it every day.”

Come to think of it, Nationals fans should be savoring every moment of this team’s current upswing, which now includes seven wins in eight games and a 15-6 record since May 18, tops in baseball. Who knows when Washington will have a stretch like this again?

“If you ask anyone what we are our last 10 games, no one probably knows,” catcher Brian Schneider said. “We’re just going out, having fun and playing baseball. … The atmosphere is totally different.”

With 10 more games to go on this lengthy homestand, the Nationals (28-33) feel like they have a golden opportunity. They now trail the third-place Atlanta Braves by one game and are within 41/2 of the second-place Phillies.

And if they continue to get quality starting pitching like Mike O’Connor provided last night, they might just find a way to overtake their division rivals.

There’s a line of thinking in baseball that says a rookie pitcher can’t really be judged until he’s faced an opposing team twice. So in that respect, last night’s game might have represented a seminal moment for O’Connor.

Only 10 days removed from a five-inning outing against the Phillies, O’Connor didn’t have the element of surprise at his disposal this time. But neither Robinson nor pitching coach Randy St. Claire was worried about that being a problem for the young lefty.

“He doesn’t need to change anything,” St. Claire said before the game. “When you start making changes, that’s when you get into trouble. Make the hitters change.”

O’Connor seemed to heed the advice, because he didn’t look any different in this outing than he did in his previous eight. Keeping the Phillies off-balance with an assortment of pitches, he never really dazzled yet wound up allowing only two runs (one earned) and three hits over six innings.

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