So You Lost To The Yankees...

Two weekends ago the Washington Nationals went up to Fenway Park and swept the Red Sox.  Based on the Red Sox previous winning tradition along with the hype the team gets from ESPN, the win looked a lot more impressive than it actually was.

In reality the Red Sox are a team that is playing .500 baseball.  Sox fans will tell you it is because of injury, but who cares what the reason is.  If you look at their wins & losses, they are not the Red Sox of old.  Sweeping any team on the road is a great feat, but the fact that it was the Red Sox shouldn't really add any extra "oohs" and "ahhs"

The next series was another road sweep for the Nats.  It was another big 3 games, but again the team they were playing was nothing special, a Blue Jays team floating around .500.  In fact, in 2 of the games, the Blue Jays starting pitchers left with injuries and they had to scramble just to finish games.

That is why the Yankees series was shaping up to be so exciting.  After steamrolling teams that they were supposed to beat, the Nats would be challenging one of the top teams in baseball.  Beating the Jays is nice and all, but playing a playoff contender like the Yankees could really give the team an idea of how they might fare in the postseason.

And when it was all said and done, the Yankees escaped Washington with a sweep...

From a fan's perspective it was a baseball weekend from Hell.  The hated Yankees came to town, they beat the Nationals, and their fans were LOUD about taking over the ballpark.  But is getting swept by the Yanks the beginning of the end for the Nattys?

If you think about it, if not for a bad call by an umpire, the Nats could have taken 1 game from the Yankees.  The Bronx Bombers proved that they are a better team than the Nationals at this point in the season, and the Nationals failed to rise to the challenge, but it was a good learning experience that happened in June and not October, and they didn't get flat out embarrassed.

So don't give up on the Nationals yet.  One series against a good team doesn't really give you any solid determinations.  But with the Rays & the Orioles up next, teams that are a combined 20 games over .500, DC Sports fans may have a better idea of where the Nationals sit in terms of playoff potential at the end of the weekend.