Washington Nationals Put NL East on Notice With Electric Performances Against Mets
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Not many people gave the Washington Nationals a chance in the series against the New York Mets.
Coming into the weekend, the Mets were the hottest team in baseball and owners of the best record in the MLB, arriving to the nation's capital following an emphatic sweep over their archrival Philadelphia Phillies.
Meanwhile, the Nationals had showed their mettle in their two previous sets, but those series wins came against the hapless Colorado Rockies and flailing Baltimore Orioles.
Because of that, Washington was expected to get put in their place by New York, a team that had an 11-2 record against them last season.
The result couldn't have been further from the case.
Not only were the Nationals able to compete in this matchup, but they came out of the weekend by securing at least a split of the series, with both of their victories coming in walk-off fashion.
Sunday was really the puncuation mark.
Washington was down 5-0 after the first inning and 6-1 after the second. It would have been easy for them to pack it in and look ahead of the next matchup on the calender, but that's not what happened.
Instead, the Nationals put together an incredible late-innings rally, scoring five runs in the bottom of the seventh to cut the deficit to one before CJ Abrams tied things up with an RBI single in the ninth and eventually scored the game-winning run on an error.
The important step for this young group will be to build on this moment.
Despite winning just 71 games the past two years, what happened last season was the most encouraging things have been for this franchise since they underwent their rebuild. And with their former star prospects now turning into impact players on the Major League roster, this was the year for them to take the next step.
Over the weekend, they did.
"We talked about that last year. Some of those one-run games, two-run games, there's going to come a point in time where we learn how to win those games. I think you're starting to see that now," manager Dave Martinez said, per Mark Zuckerman of MASN.
Entering the finale on Monday, Washington is third in the NL East.
They have a better record than the Atlanta Braves, who were picked to win the division, and are just two games back of the Phillies.
With the amount of star power on this Nationals roster, the future is looking bright for this organization going forward.
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Brad Wakai graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Journalism. While an undergrad, he worked at the student radio station covering different Penn State athletic programs like football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports. Brad became the Lead Contributor for Nittany Lions Wire of Gannett Media where he continued to cover Penn State athletics. Currently, Brad is the Publisher for Washington Nationals On SI and covers multiple teams across the On SI network. He is the host of the sports podcast I Said What I Said, where he and his co-host discuss topics across the NFL, College Football, the NBA and other sports. You can follow him on Twitter: @bwakai