In the Moment in Washington

Ten wins in a row in the tenth season in a row? Are the numbers and stars aligning? Has anyone called the fortune teller yet, or maybe we should just “pinch ourselves and squeal and know that it’s for real, the hour that our ship comes in?”*

Baseball returned to Washington, DC in 2005 and in that remarkable inaugural season the team won ten straight games at the end of June to cement their hold on first place in the NL East. The New York Times broadcast the old bromide from early in the 20th century, “First in War, First in Peace…First in the NL East.” That dream melted away but it is turning toward the final weeks of August and this ten-game winning streak has a different feel to it, more an air of reality even if it is some kind of special moment.

This is the tenth season since baseball’s return to Washington. Count them on your fingers starting in 2005 if you don’t believe it and you will see that 2014 is the tenth season. And when Denard Span crossed home plate yesterday with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning to seal the deal in a 1-0 win against the Diamondbacks, it was the tenth in a row that pushed the Nationals out to a record of 73-53, twenty games over .500.

All those tens and twenties and fives. There is an eerie feel to it, like the tumblers in the lock clicking into place. First one clicks, and turning the other way you feel the other fall into place.  First Asdrubal Cabrera comes in to cement the infield after Ryan Zimmerman tears his hamstring; then Matt Thornton comes in to rest a weary and over-worked bullpen. Cabrera is playing great defense at second base and getting key hits and he has been the pick-me-up that the team badly needed. If we can make it til Labor Day, there will be help coming up from Syracuse to rest the bullpen even more.

It is more than the late season acquisitions. There are the career years of players like Denard Span that are making it work. He is slashing .302/.355/.402, which is almost twenty points higher than his career average. He has 27 steals and that is one better than his previous high of 26 in 2010. Anthony Rendon is having a career year because this is his career–one full season in the big leagues. He is hitting .278 with 16 home runs and 12 steals and playing a very tight third base. He was drafted sixth overall, wears the number six and is filling in for Ryan Zimmerman who was also drafted sixth. The numbers just keep clicking, but put away the rubber chickens.

This is not about juju or anything except raw talent coming together. The Washington Nationals are pitching, hitting and catching the ball better than anyone else in the National League. They score 4.21 runs per game–third best in the NL–and allow only 3.4 runs per game. There is a hole between those numbers equal to almost a full run per game and the Nationals are driving a truck through the opening on a nightly basis. On paper, no one in the NL is really close to that run differential.

As good as Denard Span has been at the top of the order, Doug Fister is having an even more remarkable season. He has won 12 games against only 3 losses and has a 2.20 ERA that ranks him second in the NL behind only Clayton Kershaw. He has been very good at times during his career, but not like this. So there are career years at work here, but more importantly is the coming together of the team as a whole that makes the Nationals click.

There is not a player in the lineup that does not get a game-winning hit or make a spectacular play in the field on a regular basis. They are strong up the middle with Span, catcher Wilson Ramos, shortstop Ian Desmond and now Cabrera. They have power on the corners with Werth, Harper, LaRoche and Rendon. But it is the pitching that is the best in the NL. Stephen Strasburg is still there and he draws a lot of attention with his 198 strike outs that lead the league. But Tanner Roark and Jordan Zimmermann have been better pitchers and it shows in the numbers. Zimmermann will not equal his 19 wins of 2013, but his 2.97 ERA is what tells the tale. He keeps the team in games until the late innings where they have been winning many of them.

The biggest surprise on the team is Tanner Roark. He is 27 and in only his second season in the majors. The Nationals acquired him as part of the Cristian Guzman trade with the Texas Rangers in 2010. He doesn’t throw as hard as Strasburg or even Zimmermann, but like Fister he is always around the plate but rarely in the middle of it. Like Fister he has 12 wins and if the playoffs were held tomorrow, he might start one of those early games with Strasburg still waiting his turn.

The feeling as we head toward September is like being at the beach and sitting off shore waiting to catch a wave. The waves are big this time of year with off-shore storms pushing in large, long swells. You swim hard to catch them. You have to be fast, but even then they wash past with someone else aboard until finally it is your turn. You swim until you feel the pull of the water for the first time and you keep pumping hard until you feel the wave pick you up and then suddenly you in the middle of it, the force and might of all that water surging with you toward shore and you are in that moment. It is like no other, a natural high that lasts for only as long as the wave takes you into shore. The thrill of it sends you back out again and again until you are spent and the day is done.

That is what I imagine winning baseball to be like. And for the Nationals this season is one where the waves are all breaking their way. They are in the moment and they are hoping that the ride lasts  until the leaves are turning beautiful golden colors and October is in full swing. That would be a moment all its own, a very special one. We can only keep going out to catch the next wave, to pull hard, very hard and hope for that very long and most perfect of all rides, the one that lasts all the way through October. That is the one you gather the grandchildren around you to talk about, the one with the magic Autumn days, the one that they listen to until they are bored and beg you to stop.

*When the Ship Comes In” by Bob Dylan