After a seesaw first two games in the series, the Washington Nationals are back at .500 ahead of a second road series
That didn’t take long.
In their first series after the All-Star break, the Washington Nationals have made it back to .500 — an even 50-50 at that — with a series victory over the Oakland Athletics.
And what a series it was, with the two teams trading extreme blowouts in the first two games before playing a (relatively) normal third game.
With the series in the books, let’s look at three main takeaways.
1) A rollercoaster first two games
The Nationals came out of the break with just about the most dominant game you could hope for.
In the first game of the series, Washington hung 23 runs on the Athletics, winning by 19 in a 23-4 rout. The offense was humming (genuinely too many players had great games to highlight them all), and Cade Cavalli had an outstanding outing on the mound.
Then, the script completely flipped.
Oakland completely destroyed Washington in game two, eventually taking a 15-1 victory. Starter Zack Littell got hammered, the bullpen was bad and the offense never got going.
It’s very rare to see two blowouts of 15+ runs in a row back-to-back, let alone one by each team in a series. In a way, it speaks to the volatility of the Nats as a whole — the offense (now a league-best in runs scored) has a championship ceiling, but the pitching puts a cap on it.
2) Harry Ford announces himself
Catcher Harry Ford has arrived in the majors, and against the A’s he arrived with a bang.
Ford played two games in the series, finishing 3-8 with a home run, a double and four runs batted in. He also was hit by a pitch and drew a walk, bringing his on base percentage to an even .500.
A hyped-up top prospect, the Nationals are certainly hoping Ford, their 23-year-old backstop of the future, can continue putting together good performances.
3) Foster Griffin is pretty good, isn’t he?
It wasn’t his best game this season, but Foster Griffin kept the potential Cy Young candidacy train rolling in his first start since a great All-Star Game appearance.
In a 5-2 series-capping game, Griffin went 7 innings. He only struck out two, but he also only gave up one run. It brings his ERA on the season to a stellar 2.69, with a WHIP just over one at 1.03.
Coming into the season, nobody would have predicted the 30-year-old rookie could have a campaign this good. But almost two-thirds of the way through the season, it’s becoming clear that Griffin really is just this good.
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