6 Down, 3/4 To Go

Last week, I looked at this past week's schedule and thought that two wins would be a success. We outdid that by one, but it sure feels like we were better than that, doesn't it? Sweepee then Sweeper; it's the order that matters, at least for our psyche.

Nats Record: 3-3, our best week yet.
Overall: 12-25, 29/30 in baseball, .5 game ahead of the Royals.
Expected Record: 51-111. We picked up 7 "wins" versus expected simply by not having our brains beaten in every game.
Runs Scored: 24 (4/game); 118 overall (3.2/game), next-to-last in the NL (Thanks, Cardinals!)
Runs Allowed: 19 (3.2/game); 180 overall (4.9/ game), 14/16 in the NL.

If you're curious, if we take those first disastrous 9 games out of the equation (54 runs allowed), we've allowed 126 runs in 28 games, 4.5 runs per game, which would put us about 8th in the league. (Of course, if you took 9 terrible games out of every team...)

And if you're really, really curious, plugging that runs allowed total into the Pythagorean formula, (using our current runs/game offensive pace) gives us a record of 56-106, or to more directly compare, the same 12-25 record we have now. That seems funky to me, but we'll pretend it's a rounding error. ;)

What's Good?
1) A Little Bit Of Power! Through six weeks, the Nats have hit just 17 homers: a 79-homer pace. This week, they hit four of those, including two by Felipe Lopez. Throw in six doubles and a triple, and it was a (comparative!) orgy of extra-base hits.

2) GUZMANIA!1111! Wow, where did our old slap-hitting Guzman go? Even when he made outs this week, he was driving the ball. .333/ .385/ .417 isn't a bad start!

3) Starting Pitching! Simontacchi got cuffed around a bit -- Sunday, it was bloop after bloop in the sixth inning -- but other than him, the starters combined to allow 5 earned in 4 starts. And with our offense being what it is, starters went 1-1 despite this.

What's Bad?
1) Centerfield. A strength for so long with Church, it's a black hole of suck, with Logan and Langerhans combining for four hits -- all singles -- one walk and three double plays (all by Logan).

2) Tony Batista. Just 'cause.

3) Kory Casto. He looks increasingly overmatched. And he had only 1 AB this entire week. Why is he up? He can't learn to hit unless he gets regular playing time, and Acta seems intent on starting Robert Fick -- who in fairness had a pretty good week .364/ .462/ .455 -- every chance he gets. If Acta's not going to play Casto, he needs to go to the minors.

Game O' The Week
When one game has a stand-up inside-the-park homer AND a 9th-inning rally capped by a walkoff Grand Slam, it's gotta win, right? (What I love about the Slam video is the crowd reaction; there is none! A game-winning slam, and you can't hear a thing!)

Weekly Awards
MVP: Rumors of Brian Schneider's demise were greatly exaggerated. Sure, he's basically an opposite-field singles hitter now -- at least til opposing teams adjust -- but if you're batting .421 as he did, you can live with it!

Cy Young: Sure, Shawn Hill had 5 no-hit innings, but the hidden gem of the week was by Saul Rivera, who pitched in 5 of the 6 games this week without allowing a run. With 7 base runners allowed, he wasn't sharp, but in Cordero's absence, he stepped up.

LVP: I'd give it to .192-batting Felipe Lopez, but those two homers and two doubles make up for a lot of outs. In the absence of that, our cleanup hitter was terrible, driving in only two runs. Of course when Ryan Church bats .200/ .333/ .250 and loses a flyball in the sun, it's a rough week.

Joe Horgan Award: Bowie and Speigner weren't sharp. And he probably deserves better, but Jason Simontacchi didn't have a particularly great week with a 5.56 ERA. He did enough to win yesterday, though, despite some horrid defense. He also had the play of the game yesterday, in the Nats big inning. With 1 out, and Felipe Lopez batting, he slid HARD into second base, completely taking out Dan Uggla with an upright full-body slide, which prevented him from making the DP turn. Lopez was safe, got an RBI, and the inning continued for Cristian Guzman, who hit a 2-run triple. That small play was the difference in the game.

Weekly Whips:
5/7: Matt Chico finally had a quality start; it's not his fault that Dmitri Young left 6 runners on.
5/8: Felipe Lopez battled, hitting a homer and driving in two.
5/9: What does Jason Bergmann have to do to get a win? 6 innings and one run should do it. But with this team???
5/11:
Yeah, it was only five innings, but Shawn Hill had five no-hit innings.
5/12: As the astute commenter put it, Ryan Zimmerman now leads the league in 9th-inning RBI against the Marlins. I'd take it a step further; I bet he's the career leader.
5/13: Praise Jesus! Every time that guy plays, he does something.

What's Ahead?
We've got 4 ahead with the Braves, including the much-awaited Bergmann/Smoltz rematch. We'll also see the return of Southeast Jerome Williams (hopefully he can improve on that 0-4, 6.11 ERA) and an emergency start by Levale Speigner, who has never pitched more than 3 innings. He's walked 12 batters in 14+ innings. Maybe that's why.

After that, the Bloworioles come to town, bringing their disease-laden fans to town. If you go next week, bring some baby wipes to sterilize your seat; who knows what kind of communicable disease you could catch.

Seven games? What's your best guess? 3-4 wouldn't be terrible, right?