One more victory will ensure a place in playoffs for Washington Nationals - MLB Update
Win against the Los Angeles Dodgers has brought the Washington Nationals on the brink of securing a spot in playoffs. They are just short of one victory to earn the guarantee of their place in the play-offs.
The doubleheader on Wednesday provided them an ideal opportunely to seal their place by winning both the matches. However in the second game they were outscored by the Dodgers.
Given the fact that the Nationals have been experiencing long winning streaks since the beginning of the season, it will not be a surprise if they defeat the Dodgers in the third game of the series.
As a team, Washington will be concerned about their starters at the moment. While most of their hurlers on rotation are reliable, John Lannan who has replaced Stephen Strasburg can turn out to be a weak-link.
The fact he gave up plenty of runs on Wednesday rings alarms bells for the Nationals as when Strasburg was present hardly ever such a poor performance from their pitchers came off.
The way Lannan was roughed up on Wednesday, if anything like this happens in the post-season it will be damaging for the team’s hopes for success this year.
Furthermore, Lannan will be low on confidence right now which further indicates that he may be unable to recover quickly and throw solid innings in the upcoming games.
If the Nationals cannot witness the kind of performance from Lannan that they want, criticism that was made when Strasburg was shut-down will be vindicated.
Other than the pitchers, Washington’s offence has been below-par in the last few games. In particular against the Atlanta Braves, it did not support pitchers and far from becoming a cause of encouragement it demoralised them with dismal shows.
However as the likes of Michael Morse and Danny Espinosa join the line-up, they are expected to improve sharply in this regard.
Morse, right after recovering from pain in his left wrist, has announced himself in style as he struck a home-run and manipulated for a single in the match which unfortunately they lost.
Nationals’ starter Jordan Zimmermann has commented on his outing on the mound in the first match of the doubleheader. He said he struggled initially before finding his feet right.
"The first couple of innings, I was coming on [seven] days' rest. I was a little out of sync," Zimmermann said. "The last three innings, I was much better. I was able to control everything. It's definitely good to get a win. The infield did a good job, played
great defense."
Johnson is intent on winning the Division Championship this year.
"The only thing that means anything to me is when we clinch the [division]. That's the only thing I'm concerned with," Johnson said. "It's starting at nine. That's good. We are going to get it down to eight.”
It will be interesting to see whether Johnson can help the Nationals earn the glory of winning the Division Championship.
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