The Nationals have lost three in a row, and while their longest losing streak of the season is 5 games, for some reason this one seems longer. Probably due to all the winning they’ve done leading up to this. But the team is by no means done winning this year, and keeping in mind 2 of the 3 games they lost were 1 run decisions, they haven’t been playing that poorly. Tuesday’s game was bad, but the others were well played games, if you thought a bunch of their low scoring wins were well played.
The Nationals, despite losing the last 3, are 8-7 in interleague play. That’s pretty impressive considering the last few years of AL matchups. They’re also 13-15 in 1-run games. Hovering around .500 in those contents is about right, most teams don’t win a significantly higher number of those. They’re actually 8-5 in extra inning games. But what intrigued me the most is their home and away record.
The Nats are a measly 18-28 on the road, for a .391 winning percentage. But as bad as they are away, they are much better at home, so far going 22-13, for a .629 winning percentage. If you notice something, they’ve played 46 games on the road, but only 35 at home. That’s the most away games in the entire NL – the Phillies have only played 36 away. The Nationals rank 4th in the NL in home win percentage, and are about to play a 10 game homestand up to the All Star break. If things hold true to form, they might have a few too many 1-run games, and some of those may go the wrong way. But they’ve played so well at home, there’s a not unlikely scenario about to unfold. They may very well be over .500 going in to the All Star break.