Nationals Haven't Been Good in Sweep Situations, Here's What Their Record Could Be

The Washington Nationals have hurt themselves by not converting sweep opportunities.

Washington Nationals outfielder James Wood | Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

The Washington Nationals suffered a historic loss on Wednesday.

With a chance to sweep the San Francisco Giants, the Nationals looked well on their way to doing that when they entered the bottom of the eighth inning with an eight-run lead. But multiple longballs later
-- including the walk-off grand slam in the ninth -- Washington had to walk off the field in utter disbelief that they let one slip away in that fashion.

Because of that loss, I started diving into how many sweep opportunities the Nationals have had this season, and how many they have converted. Spoiler, it's not a pretty result. And with them firmly in the NL Wild Card race, it also made me look at what their record could be if they had been able to convert those sweeps.

Nationals Have Converted Just One of Their Six Sweep Opportunities

Washington Nationals center fielder Jacob Young | Stan Szeto-Imagn Images

At the time of writing, Washington has been able to sweep just one time throughout the season. That came against the Milwaukee Brewers from April 10-12, which was shocking at the time considering how bad the baseball world thought the Nationals would be this year.

Since that point, Washington has had other opportunities to complete a sweep. But they have failed in all five of their chances after that.

In a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds from May 12-14, the Nationals started off hot by winning the first two contests of that set. But after scoring 18 total runs in Games 1 and 2, they were held to just one in the finale. Washington then faced the Baltimore Orioles right after the Reds series from May 15-17, and once again, they got off to a strong start by winning the first two games. But just like before, they were stifled in the finale and squandered another opportunity to record a sweep.

A little bit later that month, the Nationals had a chance to sweep the Cleveland Guardians on the road. But after scoring 16 runs in the first two contests, they were held to just two in the finale and had to settle for two wins out of three. And now, most recently, Washington wasn't able to secure sweeps in their series against either the Arizona Diamondbacks or Giants, which would have resulted in them having a six-game winning streak heading into their day off on Thursday.

It should be point out that pulling off a sweep isn't easy. Per MLBSweeps.com, roughly 27% of three-game series have resulted in a sweep since 1961. That's not a high number, but still, going 1-for-6 on the season and 0-for-5 in their last five opportunities is something that has stood out.

Nationals Could Comfortably Own Wild Card Spot With Better Conversion Rate

Washington Nationals outfielder Dylan Crews | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

What stings when it comes to those missed opportunities is what their record could have been if they had a better conversion rate when going for a sweep. After the loss on Wednesday, the Nationals have a record of 35-34. They are now one game out of the final NL Wild Card spot after they entered the day owning a share of it.

If Washington had converted all six of their of sweep opportunities, then they would be 40-29, which would have them in first place of the Wild Card standings by multiple games. If they had gone 3-for-6 in those situations, they would be 38-31, which would also have them sitting in first place. And even if they had secured just one more sweep -- which would put them around the average historical marker of roughly 27% -- then they would be owners of the final Wild Card spot by themselves.

When taking all of that into account, that is a tough pill to swallow when it comes to where Washington could potentially be if they had been able to slam the door on their opponents.