{"id":6471,"date":"2013-04-12T15:13:40","date_gmt":"2013-04-12T19:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=6471"},"modified":"2013-04-12T15:13:40","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T19:13:40","slug":"a-sweeping-change-for-the-nats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=6471","title":{"rendered":"A “Sweeping” Change for the Nats"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, I know “small sample sizes” and all that, but he’re something I found interesting upon watching the Nats finish their second sweep of the series against the White Sox.<\/p>\n

Last year early on<\/a>, the Nats had a bad tendency to drop the final game of series that they were on the verge of sweeping. \u00a0Check out the 2012 Nats game-by-game results: time and time again they won the first two (or three) games in a series then dropped the finale. \u00a0In April and May of 2012 this happened against the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati, Houston, San Diego, Philadelphia, Cincinnati again, and then Philadelphia again. \u00a0That was 7 straight attempts at sweeping a series where they dropped the 3rd game (I’m not counting the 2-game mini series sweeps they had along the way). \u00a0They also threw in a couple other series where they won 2 of 3 but lost the first game instead of the last. \u00a0Finally on May 25-27th they finished off a series sweep in Atlanta (and then promptly got swept in Miami the next series).<\/p>\n

So far in 2013, they have had two inferior opponents (Miami and the White Sox) on the ropes and then promptly \u00a0swept them. \u00a0No let down in the final game; they powered through and got the 3rd win in the series.<\/p>\n

Why is this important? \u00a0Because these extra wins against these crummy teams will make a difference down the road. \u00a0 If you sweep every sub .500 team (or come close to it) and then break even against your playoff contenders, you’re a 110 win team. \u00a0 Check out this possible result-grid for the Nats 2013 season (put in with approximate records with the team splitting with any playoff calibre team and then dominating or sweeping the lesser clubs):<\/p>\n\n\n<\/col>\n<\/col>\n<\/col>\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Team<\/td>\nW<\/td>\nL<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ARI<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ATL<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BAL<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CHC<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CHW<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CIN<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cle<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
COL<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Det<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KC<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LAD<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MIA<\/td>\n15<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MIL<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Min<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
NYM<\/td>\n15<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
PHI<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
PIT<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SDP<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SFG<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
STL<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Record<\/td>\n108<\/td>\n54<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Looks pretty good doesn’t it? \u00a0And this assumes we break even with Philadelphia … who I think is really weakened this year and could be fodder for the Nats once the games come around. \u00a0Can this team take 15 of 19 games against Miami and the Mets? \u00a0 Well, they beat the Mets 14-4 last year and they’re about the same team, and Miami is (of course) significantly weaker than the team that had a season split with the Nats last year. \u00a0So yeah I think those are decent predictions.<\/p>\n

I also feel these 3rd game of 3 wins are important because perhaps last year they were, for lack of a better term, “embarassed” to be suddenly in the dominant position as a team, and I think mentally this prevented them from really putting their foot on the throat of an opponent and finishing them off. \u00a0Perhaps they were of the mind-set going into a 3-game series of thinking, “wow it’d be great if we won 2 of 3 here” and then they mentally let up in the finales after winning the first two games.<\/p>\n

Now, the Nats are serious. \u00a0And they’re getting wins where they should be getting wins. \u00a0I can’t wait for this weekend’s series against what is looking like the 2nd best team in baseball (behind us of course \ud83d\ude42 ).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, I know “small sample sizes” and all that, but he’re something I found interesting upon watching the Nats finish their second sweep of the series against the White Sox. Last year early on, the Nats had a bad tendency to drop the final game of series that they were on the verge of sweeping. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1016],"class_list":["post-6471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsgeneral","tag-todd-boss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6471"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6565,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6471\/revisions\/6565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}