Is Nats Pitching Enough to Stay Atop the NL East?

It is no secret that the Washington Nationals’ starting five pitching rotation may be one of the best in major league baseball. Stephen Strasburg is a perfect 9-0, Max Scherzer just recently tied MLB’s strikeout record for a single game  with 20 and the Nationals pitchers lead the league in strikeouts with 484.

Joe Ross has the eighth-highest batting average on the team (.211) with Scherzer (.208) and Gio Gonzalez (.200) right behind him. Considering they only hit when they are pitching, this can be seen as alarming to Nationals fans but these three pitchers have higher averages than players who are in the starting line-up almost every game.

It is no secret that, as of late, the majority of the Nationals have not been hitting well. Only two players have averages over .300: Murphy at .394 and Wilson Ramos at .326. No one else even comes close. The bulk of the lineup is hitting below .250.

Murphy is Washington’s only big hitter right now. He leads the MLB in batting average, is tied for first in the league with 75 hits and is second in slugging percentage. In Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies he hit a double, a home-run and a single.

Another concern is Bryce Harper.

His average is down to .242. That can be attributed to opposing pitchers purposefully not pitching to him. His hot start to the season got people noticing and pitchers and managers thought of a way to slow the reigning MVP down. Harper is tied for first in the MLB with 48 walks, with most of those coming in the last month. Fans had to hold their breath when he was hit by a pitch in the game against Philadelphia. He is now considered day-to-day with a right knee contusion.

Something else to notice is that the Nationals are only 4.5 games ahead of the Phillies and the Miami Marlins who are both tied for third place in the NL East — of which Washington is a member. The New York Mets, who are in second place, trail by only one game.

There is actually no need for fans to become too worried for now… it is only about two months into the season and there is a lot of baseball yet to play. However, if the Nationals want a chance to run away with their division, the players need to start making contact with the bats. The team can only rely so much on the pitching to get them wins. Runs win games.