The end of Stephen Strasburg's season was the beginning of a wild, stormy day at Nationals Park Saturday.
The gap between the Washington Nationals and the Chicago Cubs was made perfectly clear this week at Nationals Park.
As the Washington Nationals milled about their dugout late Tuesday night, with the luxury of a cushy lead over the Chicago Cubs in an 11-5 victory, they allowed themselves to wonder what their closest competition was up to. They glanced out at the out-of-town scoreboard in right field and noticed the Atlanta Braves were losing.
When the St. Louis Cardinals rolled into town Thursday they brought with them a reputation for offensive firepower. The only team in the National League the Washington Nationals had yet to face were supposed to bring a stiff test at the start of their longest homestand of the season.
Twenty minutes after the last pitch of their 4-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, no one but team personnel was let in or out as the Washington Nationals' first four-game losing streak since June set in.
From his perch on the steps of the Washington Nationals' dugout, hitting coach Rick Eckstein has a front row seat for the work of his offense. For a while, it was a seat that was scrutinized from the outside.
Washington Nationals' left-hander Gio Gonzalez dodged and ducked danger over 5.2 innings, earning his 16th victory of the season in the Nats' 5-2 win over the New York Mets on Sunday.
A pitcher's arm and a football player's head might seem like two different things -- and on the anatomical level, of course, they are. But there's a connection between them, too, especially in regard to the increasingly disputatious Stephen Strasburg Debate.
The sour realities that come with being the best team in the major leagues aren't all that plentiful. The Washington Nationals entered Tuesday night's game against the San Francisco Giants having lost just twice in their previous 13 games and the night before they'd set a record for hits inside the pitcher's haven that is AT&T Park.
