Turnaround?

Quite a little run they're putting together, isn't it. A 9-4 record since those awful days of early May, and finally a the long-promised re-awakening of the bats. Series results since May 10: vs. Florida, 3-0 series victory; vs. Atlanta, 3-1 series victory; vs. Baltimore, Big Picture victory; vs. Cincy, no worse than a 2-2 series tie. Run totals for the last three games: 7, 8, 12. Some might call both streaks a fluky abberration, something to be dismissed as a brief but shining period of wins coming together and hot hitting streaks coindicing. Nonsense, we say.

The team is merely showing what it can truly be capable of. That the Nats have put this run together at a time when their starting pitching rotation is such an injury-riddled debacle is even more impressive. Just think what the team could be with hitting at even a little less of its current output accompanied by starting pitchers who were either beginning to dominate (Bergmann, Hill) or who could turn their season around and again be effective (Patterson). Most heartening could be the rediscovery of the home run, with Church, Kearns, Zimmerman, Lopez, and Schneider all homering this series (and with Guzman and Young again finding the gaps for extra bases).

Even if this is just a freakish run of good fortune, how many of us really thought there would be any 9-4 stretches this season, or totals of 27 runs in three games? Let's not fret that "this can't last" or worry about a time when the Nats might again lose eight in a row and just enjoy the ride and think about what it could mean for a brilliant future.