Nationals in the national media

[PC]

I can't find a thread for these to columns/blogs entries about the Nationals.  It's not specifically offense or pitching.  It's not about a specific player.  It's not from ESPN.  So I started a new thread for it.  If there's a better place for this, please merge.

[PC]

With offense now surging, Nationals are downright dangerous

On this our nation's birthday, doesn't it seem patriotic to sing the praises of a team from our capital sporting the name Nationals, along with red, white and blue uniforms? I feel like it does. So let's do just that.

The Nationals have now taken the first two games in a series against the first-place Giants, who headed to D.C. having won seven of their last 10 games. Washington is now 47-32, sporting a 4.5-game lead in the NL East and the best record in the National League.

The most encouraging movement is that now the offense has become very dangerous.

Heading to the thin air of Colorado did something to uncork the offensive prowess of these Nationals. In their past eight games -- the first three of which came in Colorado -- they have scored 69 runs. Not surprisingly, they've won six of those games, because the offense had previously been the weakness.

I say this because the Nationals entered Wednesday ranked 10th in the National League in runs scored and eighth in OPS. And this is after that recent surge, too. They were toward the bottom of the NL in most offensive categories throughout much of the first half. The recent surge isn't a fluke, though, because of the re-emergence of two sluggers: Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse.

Zimmerman had struggled through the early portion of the season. But in his past 10 games, he is hitting .370/.408/.739 with five doubles, four home runs, 11 runs and 16 RBI. We've seen what Zimmerman -- a two-time Silver Slugger winner -- can do with the bat before.

Morse spent most of the first half on the disabled list, and then had a slow start upon his return. In his last eight games, though, he's hitting .457/.486/.743 with three homers, nine RBI and 10 runs. Those three homers have come in the last six games, too, so he may be on the verge of a serious power surge.

With these two hitting well, the Nationals have a scary 2-6 in the order, which is Bryce Harper, Zimmerman, Morse, Adam LaRoche and Ian Desmond. And that word, scary, is apt to describe how good the Nationals can be when teaming a good offense with that pitching staff.

Heading into Wednesday, the Nationals ranked first in the NL in ERA and WHIP. They were the only team in the NL holding opponents to an on-base percentage of lower than .300 and were allowing opponents to hit a meager .229 off them.

Keep in mind, the Nationals are getting back solid reliever Drew Storen soon, and it shouldn't be much longer before All-Star outfielder Jayson Werth returns.

So is it a special season in our nation's capital? I'd say a playoff berth from a ballclub that has never had a winning record or finished better than third in Washington would qualify. And the numbers say they're well on their way.

In the past five seasons, 14 teams have started 47-32 or better in Major League Baseball. Of those 14, only the 2010 Red Sox failed to make the playoffs, finishing third in the mighty AL East behind the Rays and Yankees. With a second wild card this season, don't count on the Nats falling that far.

The Washington Nationals are for real. And they appear to have the staying power to make the playoffs this season.

What better time than Independence Day to hammer home the point.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/19498136/with-offense-now-surging-nationals-are-downright-dangerous

[PC]

Plan won't hinder Nats' playoff bid

On the Fourth of July, I’m prepared to make a patriotic proclamation.

The Washington Nationals will win the National League East.

The statement sounds bolder than it actually is. The Nationals have the best record, lowest team ERA and largest division lead in the NL. At a time one might expect them to tire in the summer heat, the Nationals are playing their best baseball yet. The San Francisco Giants arrived here this week as the NL West leader, and the Nationals battered them in the first two games by an 18-7 count.

Ryan Zimmerman and Mike Morse, limited by injuries for much of the season, hit back-to-back home runs in the holiday matinee. A backup catcher named Jhonatan Solano — he’s the fifth player to start at the position for Washington this year — delivered the go-ahead home run. Edwin Jackson, a winner for the fourth time in sixth starts, received a partial standing ovation in the fourth inning — after a fly ball to the warning track.

The Nationals are living right. And I don’t see any team in the division catching them now.

“I don’t think it’s a fluke,” general manager Mike Rizzo said after Wednesday’s 9-4 win when asked about his team’s position atop the league. “We knew with the starting pitching we had, the bullpen we had, the defense we had, we were going to be in a lot of games. Then when the offense would catch up, we would have a chance to go on some streaks.

“I’m very pleased with it — don’t get me wrong — but I’m not shocked by it. I’m not taken aback or in awe with it. We feel comfortable in our own skin. We feel comfortable with where we’re at.”

At 15 games over .500, most of the yeah-buts associated with the Nationals’ torrid start have melted away. There remains the thorny topic of how many innings the organization will allow Stephen Strasburg to throw this year. (And, yes, the team still plans to take the ball away from Strasburg sometime in September.)

Aside from that, what exactly are this team’s weaknesses? A recent shot of cortisone into Zimmerman’s right shoulder enlivened his bat and, by extension, the lineup. The Nationals have averaged better than eight runs per game during their current 6-2 run. Jayson Werth should further improve matters when he returns from the disabled list later this month. Recuperating closer Drew Storen should have a similar impact on the bullpen when he comes back after the All-Star break.

The team’s most obvious flaw is a lack of postseason experience. Only two players on the active roster — starter Edwin Jackson and reserve Mark DeRosa — have World Series rings. The Nationals’ core is young, homegrown and generally inexpensive. Those are excellent attributes, but inherent is unfamiliarity with meaningful September baseball.

Zimmerman doesn’t care.

“We’re learning how to win,” he said. “We’re very inexperienced in this kind of stuff, but experience is the most overrated thing in sports. The game is the game, whether it’s now or Sept. 15, and you need five more wins to do whatever. It’s the same game we’re playing right now. That’s the way all of us think of it.

“It’s easy to say now, because none of us have ever been through it. But I really have a feeling that, even later in the year, I really don’t see anything changing. It’s just a group of guys that enjoys playing baseball. Pressure and experience and age — all that junk is overrated. Take our 25 guys against someone else’s 25 guys. It’s not like we’re going to show up in September and swing at every slider in the dirt.”

That, in short, is why I’m convinced the Nationals will win the division: They have truckloads of talent and just the right amount of swagger.

Speaking of the talent/swagger nexus, we’ve reached this point in a discussion about the Nationals and here comes the first mention of Bryce Harper. Competitively speaking, that’s about the way it should be. Harper is a 19-year-old rookie, facing more scrutiny than just about any teenage athlete we can recall, and it’s no accident that his worst stretch in the majors came just before Zimmerman and Morse got going. Perhaps Harper had begun to feel the tightening vise of expectations.

Now, Harper can settle into his role — a No. 2 hitter who provides a lot of energy, some power and good defense in center field. Even at his tender age, he’s capable of that much.

Nationals manager Davey Johnson remarked this week that he would like to move Harper to the outfield corners more often, as a way to ease the stress on his body. But that will become difficult once Werth returns to play right, now that Morse is reestablished in left. Morse can play first base, but that would force Johnson to sit Adam LaRoche, who leads the team with 15 home runs and 52 RBI.

The Nationals might acquire a center fielder during the offseason — Michael Bourn? B.J. Upton? — but Harper appears to be the solution for the remainder of the season.

“I think Bryce has showed all of us that he can handle center field,” Rizzo said. “He’s got 19-year-old legs. His legs aren’t going to be an issue for us. His energy level isn’t going to be an issue for us. It looks like he’s going to be our center fielder, because you’ve got to get everybody’s bat in the lineup. He’s played it well, and I think that makes the decision much easier for us.”

The hard decision is the one that involves Strasburg, but Rizzo has resolved to make it. The Nationals have said since spring training that Strasburg’s innings will be capped (likely around 160) in his first full season after Tommy John surgery, and their success hasn’t changed Rizzo’s approach. Nor has the fact Strasburg said he feels “great” after throwing 93 innings so far this year. “I have no clue how many innings I’m going to throw this year,” Strasburg said. “Nobody’s said anything to me.”

Asked how the clubhouse will react when the front office shuts down Strasburg for the season, Morse said, “When they say he can’t pitch, he can’t pitch. Our team is good enough. Mike Rizzo built this team, knowing that Stephen’s not going to be able to go the full length. I bet he has a good game plan, and I think we’ll be fine.”

I don’t agree with the Nationals’ approach, because they owe their players (and fans) the best possible opportunity to win the World Series. But I’ve written as much before, and, much to my amazement, it didn’t affect Rizzo’s plans. So, soon the focus will turn to how the Nationals can account for his absence.

The Nationals, in fact, should have a good rotation without Strasburg. Gio Gonzalez is an All-Star, Jordan Zimmermann should be one, too, and Jackson and Ross Detwiler have ERAs below 4.00. Unless Rizzo trades for a starter — which is possible — Strasburg’s likely replacement is John Lannan, the left-hander who led the Nationals in wins last year but has spent all of this season at Triple-A Syracuse.

Lannan’s full-season numbers are ordinary, but he’s been excellent lately: 1-1 with a 2.10 ERA in his past four starts. Rizzo said the Nationals “never shopped” Lannan earlier this season, adding, “We knew what our calendar looked like.” That was a not-so-subtle reference to Strasburg’s seasonal sundial. And if the Nationals needed a starting pitcher tomorrow, Rizzo said, Lannan would get the call.

Contrast that with the pitching quandaries of the Mets (worst bullpen in baseball) and Braves (Brandon Beachy out for the season, Mike Minor and Randall Delgado struggling). The Marlins and Phillies? Please. Both of them are stuck on the wrong side of .500, and Philadelphia recently lost six straight.

So, count on Nationals Park hosting its first postseason game this October. The Nationals have a 4-1/2 lead in the NL East, and they’re just naïve enough to make it last. “We’re not marking off days on the calendar, hoping the season ends, because we’re in first place,” Zimmerman said. “We just go out and have fun. It’s a good atmosphere, a good place.”

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Washington-Nationals-a-cinch-to-make-first-playoff-appearance-070412

[PC]

http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/feed/2012-07/eye-on-mlb/story/washington-nationals-bryce-harper-stephen-strasburg-ryan-zimmerman

[panthers30]

Is Werth REALLY set to return later this month?  That can't be right.

I figured it'd be late August if at all this season.

[wpa2629]

Werth is supposed to come back end of July

[tomterp]

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=17585

Friday, July 6
 
by Daniel Rathman, Baseball Prospectus
 
The Thursday Takeaway
 In 81 games before Wednesday’s matinee against the Nationals, the Giants had lost only one game in which they led by three or more runs. But as they leave Washington for Pittsburgh on the heels of a three-game sweep, that number has climbed to three.
 
In 83 games prior to Thursday’s finale against the Mets, the Phillies had been 35-0 when leading after eight innings. But as they head home from New York having lost two of three, that streak has come to an end.
 
One of the many virtues that has led to the Nats’ and Mets’ 1-2 standing atop the National League East is their ability to relentlessly capitalize on mistakes. When opponents fail to plate runners on third with less than two out—as the Giants did on two occasions in last night’s loss—the Nationals eventually make them pay. When the opposing team’s starter fails to deliver shutdown innings and protect narrow leads—as Cole Hamels was unable to do on two occasions in last night’s loss—the Mets eventually make his team pay.
 
In many ways, the Giants-Nationals and Phillies-Mets series finales, both played in the early-evening slot and completed within minutes of each other, had the same narrative. The visitors pulled ahead in the middle innings and, despite their inability to produce insurance runs, carried their leads into the ninth. Their closers struggled with their command, and poor batted-ball luck combined with shaky defense ultimately proved to be their undoing.
 
A shortstop without Brandon Crawford’s throwing yips might have made a better relay to first on Adam LaRoche’s walk-off fielder’s choice to send that game into extra innings. A right fielder with more range than Hunter Pence might have reached David Wright’s walk-off single to preserve that tie, too. But while the Nationals and Mets won the games in their last at-bats, earlier shortcomings by the Giants and Phillies were at least as fateful as their ninth-inning meltdowns.
 
For the Giants, Thursday’s defeat means another game lost to the Dodgers in the National League West standings, where Los Angeles now merely needs to tread water against Arizona to remain in first place when Matt Kemp returns. For the Phillies, Thursday’s setback means another gutshot to a fan base not accustomed to the plethora of painful losses that have mired the team in last place.
 
But while the Giants are only 1 1/2 games back and the Phillies 13, the lessons from their losses on Thursday are the same: The Nationals and Mets are legitimate contenders, and if you squander opportunities to beat them, they will find a way to beat you. 

[NatsDad14]

Anyone with ESPN Insider?

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story?id=8135108&_slug_=mlb-pittsburgh-pirates-washington-nationals-hold-win-their-divisions&addata=2009_insdr_mod_mlb_xxx_xxx&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fmlb%2fstory%3fid%3d8135108%26_slug_%3dmlb-pittsburgh-pirates-washington-nationals-hold-win-their-divisions%26addata%3d2009_insdr_mod_mlb_xxx_xxx

[wpa2629]

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8135108/mlb-pittsburgh-pirates-washington-nationals-hold-win-their-divisions

Independence Day is most commonly associated with fireworks, going swimming, overcooking hamburgers on the grill, and, if you're like me, imagining the dollars flying out of your wallet as you watch your central air labor in 100-degree heat. When it comes to baseball, July 4 also represents the unofficial beginning of the busy trade season in major league baseball, the sport's equivalent of the mall on Black Friday.

The trade deadline makes July the crucial decision-making month of the season for most teams. It's the last chance to acquire the most coveted veterans or prospects and the point at which teams in the middle need to commit to a direction. So, on a general basis, when is the tipping point for the division during the season, the point at which the team leading becomes the clear favorite?

The old adage states that the team leading the league on July 4 will win the pennant. Obviously, nothing is as simple as that, but sometimes even the craziest bits of conventional wisdom contain a grain of truth. For example, there's actually some data that supports the nugget that stealing third is most effective with one out. Now, it's obvious the July 4 adage isn't literally true -- it doesn't take a memory like a steel trap to remember all the way back to 2011 and the July 4th-leading Indians and Giants watching the playoffs at home.

Looking at baseball history back to 1901, it turns out that 62 percent of teams that enter July 4 with a lead finish the season winning the division. Divisions are smaller now, four to six teams, but the trend remains the same when going back to look at eight- and 10-team leagues without divisions. Great odds if you're playing the lottery, less so for Russian roulette. Leading the league on July 4 isn't a free pass, but you're obviously in a pretty strong position.

Obviously, these odds change based on just how big that lead is. No team has come back from a double-digit deficit on July 4, though most notably, the 1969 Miracle Mets, only 7 1/2 games back at this point, came back from a 10-game lead a month later. Four games back with three months to play may not sound like a huge gap, but more than three-quarters of teams with a four game or greater lead finished in first at season's end.

So, is there a typical tipping point during the season? And if there is, where is it? To look at this, I took the standings for every day in baseball history back to 1901 and looked at how each team with a lead fared after every date. Reviewing the results (see graph below), there's no clear sudden tipping point. Leading teams overall have 40 percent odds at the beginning of May and see that percentage increase by about 10 percentage points every month they still retain the lead. If anything, it indicates that perhaps too much attention is made to the July trade deadline, and that teams extremely confident of competing, and with a definite need, shouldn't be afraid to make an early trade with an obviously rebuilding team.


I didn't look at the wild-card odds for these teams because, thanks to the new playoff format, the relative values of winning the division and winning the wild card have shifted rather dramatically. By adding the single play-in game to allow an extra wild card, winning the division is a juicier prize this year than it has been since 1993, baseball's last year of two-division leagues. Winning the division now gets you more than pride and possibly an extra game at home. Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago White Sox fans have a lot to celebrate this holiday week, but while they can at least start chilling the champagne, they're going to have to wait a while longer to pop the cork.

[wpa2629]

[Obed_Marsh]

...if you're like me, imagining the dollars flying out of your wallet as you watch your central air labor in 100-degree heat.

[PC]

That ESPN insider blog was completely pointless and a little insulting.  First, they didn't specifically address the Nationals but they included them in the title, questioning whether they'd "hold on".  They could have put any division leader, like the Yankees and the Rangers, in the headline for as much as a specific division leader was addressed.  The Nationals don't have the smallest division lead nor the worst record among division leaders.  There was no reason for them to be in the headline for any reason other than disrespect.  More simply, the headline could have been, and more appropriately, been worded to ask the question without specifically naming any division leader as, again, no division leader's chances were broken down.

[PC]

WASHINGTON -- The games will get tougher. The pressure will go higher.

The 69-year-old manager knows that, even if the kids playing for the Nationals don't realize it yet.

They're learning, Davey Johnson said after Monday night had turned into Tuesday morning. They're young, and they're learning.

And learning has rarely been this much fun.

That's how this season has gone for the Nationals, though. They're learning, and they're loving it, all at the same time.

"It's been a blast already," closer Tyler Clippard said after the latest wild win, Monday night's 5-4, 13-inning triumph over the second-place Braves. "It's only going to get more fun.

"We're having a blast."

They have the best record in the game, a full 30 games over .500 at 76-46. They have a six-game lead over the Braves, and the computers at coolstandings.com say they have a 99.4 percent chance of making the playoffs.

No one has missed the playoffs when it was that sure a thing since ... well, since last year, when the Red Sox were at one point a 99.6 percent certainty to make it to October.

For the record, there was no sign of any beer or fried chicken in the Nationals clubhouse Monday. No sign of panic.

"We're a no-panic kind of team," Clippard said.

We don't really know that yet, because there's really been no reason for the Nationals to panic yet. Even the biggest series in D.C. in 79 years (or is it 67?) arrived with a lot more pressure on the visiting Braves, who have a lot of ground to make up if they want to win the division (and also have memories of last year's collapse to erase).

It's the Braves who have been in the position lately of hoping someone else beats the Nationals, while the Nationals haven't felt a need to sweat every game the Braves are playing.

To hear Nationals players tell it, they weren't even fully focused on the Braves-Dodgers game Sunday, when a long rain delay at Nationals Park gave them a chance to watch their closest (and now only serious) pursuer.

"We watched, but it's not like it was on all the TV's [in the clubhouse]," Drew Storen said.

There'll be time for that in September.

"Even then, if we win, it doesn't matter what they do," he said.

The Nationals give you that sense of confidence, to the point where Clippard said it was "only a matter of time" before they won Monday night's marathon.

Their wise manager sees through some of it, noting that Jordan Zimmermann, his 26-year-old starter, seemed to be rushing a lot more than usual Monday night. Same with his young hitters.

"They're trying to crush every ball every at-bat," Johnson said.

He said the emotions turned "almost like a playoff game," which he saw as both a good and a bad sign.

Good, if the Nationals learn that it's just about playing the game, the way they've played games already for the first 4 1/2 months of the season.

"We're very young," Johnson said. "This is great. The learning curve."

By the end, the Nationals could look out at their right-field bullpen and see starter Edwin Jackson warming up to pitch a 14th inning. Because the rushing Zimmermann only made it through five innings, Johnson had already run through his entire bullpen.

Jackson threw 103 pitches on Saturday -- "I didn't throw that many, did I?" he said -- but he told Johnson he was available if needed.

"I wasn't doing it for heroism," he said. "The bullpen was done. And these aren't necessarily must-wins, but they're games you want to win."

Jackson, of course, is one Nationals player who has been through a pennant race before. A bunch of them, actually, all the way back to his time with the 2008 Rays, and all the way up to last year's World Series run with the Cardinals.

"The way I feel, there's no pressure on us," he said.

Not yet, certainly, but there are bigger games to come for this team.

They could come in the next few weeks, if the Braves can find a way to tighten things in the division race. They may not come until October.

One way or the other, the Nationals are heading for games where there really will be a "playoff atmosphere," games where there will be way more at stake for them than there was Monday.

The manager knows it. The manager keeps preaching.

His young team is learning, he says.

And learning has rarely been this much fun.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/19841003/while-their-skipper-preaches-the-nats-keep-learning-winning-and-having-a-blast

[JCA-CrystalCity]

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/28203/how-royals-failed-to-become-nats-of-al

comparing off-season moves and development of youngish players. 

[Slateman]

I like that reaction out of Jackson. I think he's going to end up being a great pickup for more than just his stats

[Once an Expos Fan]

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/28203/how-royals-failed-to-become-nats-of-al

comparing off-season moves and development of youngish players. 

"Four middling prospects" for Gio.

Get the freak out, seriously.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

None were top 50 at the time of the trade.  Milone was severely underestimated.  norris may turn out to be a regular. 

[Once an Expos Fan]

None were top 50 at the time of the trade.  Milone was severely underestimated.  norris may turn out to be a regular. 

Sure, but I don't think calling them "middling" is fair, underestimated or not. This article shouldn't be written without the benefit of hindsight now that the rest of the baseball world has re-evaluated how good they are as prospects.

Peacock may be having a tough year, but he was a coup for Oakland, imo.

[houston-nat]

I do think it's a little odd that they chalk the difference up to "luck" at the end. There is, for example, a weird insinuation that Jonathan Sanchez and Gio Gonzalez are similar pitchers and that the Nationals got "lucky" they chose Gio over Sanchez. Well...there's a reason Rizzo was all in on Gio but didn't try to acquire Sanchez, right?

[Once an Expos Fan]

I do think it's a little odd that they chalk the difference up to "luck" at the end. There is, for example, a weird insinuation that Jonathan Sanchez and Gio Gonzalez are similar pitchers and that the Nationals got "lucky" they chose Gio over Sanchez. Well...there's a reason Rizzo was all in on Gio but didn't try to acquire Sanchez, right?

Yeah, that was peculiar. Sanchez has been all flash, no substance over his career (for the most part). Gio's been the complete opposite.

On the other hand, Royals fans can feel less bad about that trade now that Melky has been outed as a cheater.

[Slateman]

Sure, but I don't think calling them "middling" is fair, underestimated or not. This article shouldn't be written without the benefit of hindsight now that the rest of the baseball world has re-evaluated how good they are as prospects.

Peacock may be having a tough year, but he was a coup for Oakland, imo.

They were middling. Cole is the only one with any real upside and he is a long way away from the bigs. Milone is a number 4/5 starter who dies when he isn't in Oakland's huge park. Norris may have some power, but his defense is only okay and he'll never hit for decent average. Peacock is at best a number 3 and is still at least another season away from making the bigs.

They were middling. Stop over valuing prospects.

[Once an Expos Fan]

They were middling. Cole is the only one with any real upside and he is a long way away from the bigs. Milone is a number 4/5 starter who dies when he isn't in Oakland's huge park. Norris may have some power, but his defense is only okay and he'll never hit for decent average. Peacock is at best a number 3 and is still at least another season away from making the bigs.

They were middling. Stop over valuing prospects.

If I were overvaluing prospects I'd be complaining that we got fleeced in that deal, which I'm not. Nor am I saying they're all Zimmermann's and Trout's. I just don't like the implication the author is pushing forward, that we didn't give up anything of note to pick up Gio.

Related:

While the longtime scout in Rizzo bemoaned the “painful” cost in homegrown prospects that it took to land Gonzalez, the front-office executive in him was practically giddy at the thought of slotting Gonzalez — a pitcher Rizzo has coveted since seeing him pitch as a high schooler in Miami — in between right-handers Stephen Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann atop the Nationals’ rotation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/nationals-journal/post/gio-gonzalez-trade-mike-rizzo-sees-nationals-set-up-for-the-long-haul/2011/12/23/gIQAZROZEP_blog.html

Middling prospects wouldn't be painful to give up.

[Slateman]

Cole was painful to give up. Everyone else was a breeze. That's what he's talking about.

[welch]

They were middling. Cole is the only one with any real upside and he is a long way away from the bigs. Milone is a number 4/5 starter who dies when he isn't in Oakland's huge park. Norris may have some power, but his defense is only okay and he'll never hit for decent average. Peacock is at best a number 3 and is still at least another season away from making the bigs.

They were middling. Stop over valuing prospects.

I agree with this. I was looking forward to a season of Peacock, and eventually Cole, but Milone did not look as good as Lannan, and Norris would have been the  number three catcher in the system...maybe starting at Syracuse, but a long way from challenging Ramos and Flores. I was unimpressed until I noticed Gio's age -- hey, this is not a 33 year old former Cy Young contender.

(Probably good scouting helps the Nats?)

[PC]

WASHINGTON -- I don't know if Stephen Strasburg was trying to send a message, either with the way he pitched Tuesday night or with his final postgame comment.

"I feel great," said Strasburg, on the night his inning total topped 145, his win total reached 15, his strikeout total leaped to 183 and the Nationals' lead in the National League East jumped to a season-high seven games over the second-place Braves. "I feel like there's a lot more left in the tank."

Judge for yourself whether he meant it as a helpful suggestion, as veiled criticism or simply as a statement of fact. But on the night when it became even more likely that this Nationals season will extend into October (their playoff chances increased to a major-league high 99.7 percent after Tuesday's 4-1 win over the Braves, according to the computers at coolstandings.com), the issue of no Strasburg in October became all the more real.

This isn't about whether the Nationals are doing the right thing with their long-planned Strasburg shutdown. This isn't a suggestion that they should rethink, rework or redo anything.

It's just that on this night in late August, Strasburg gave us all a hint of what he might look like on a night in October. With a big crowd, a big opponent and a big stage, he came up big.

"Much better tempo," pitching coach Steve McCatty said. "He was fired up for this game."

Strasburg shot down any suggestion that this was "his playoffs."

"They're regular-season [games]," he said, after allowing one run on four hits in six innings, with 10 strikeouts.

But this may have been the biggest game -- regular-season or otherwise -- that Strasburg will be allowed to pitch this year. By the time the first-place Nationals and second-place Braves meet again, on Sept. 14-16 in Atlanta, Strasburg may already have been shut down, or the Nationals may already have an imposing lead.

By the time the truly big games come up in October, he'll definitely have been shut down, barring a complete and totally unexpected about-face by Nationals management.

The shutdown remains enough of a topic that it was fair to wonder whether it would play into manager Davey Johnson's decision on whether to leave Strasburg in the game after Tuesday's 51-minute third-inning rain delay. Pull Strasburg at that point, and perhaps Johnson would buy him an extra start in September.

Instead, Johnson stuck to his usual one-hour cutoff. If the delay lasted less than an hour, Strasburg would continue.

It was a reasonable decision, given the importance of the game, the way Strasburg was pitching and the fact that the Nationals had used every reliever they had in Monday's 13-inning win. Given that it was Strasburg, even the Nationals players knew it wasn't an obvious decision.

"I know Stephen, and he wants to pitch all the time," said shortstop Ian Desmond, whose second home run in as many nights had given Strasburg a 1-0 lead heading into the delay. "The organization, on the other hand, I didn't know how careful they'd be."

They are being careful, and it's hard to get too upset with them for that. But even the Nationals themselves can get tempted to stretch things a little, as Johnson did when he allowed Strasburg to pitch the sixth inning after he struck out the side in the fifth.

"I think the whole stadium might have strung me up if I'd pulled him after the fifth," Johnson said.

The fifth inning was electric, with one strikeout on Strasburg's devastating changeup and then two more on his fastball. He had 10 strikeouts in all, two on the curveball, four on the changeup and four on the fastball.

The combination of pitches has led to comparisons with Justin Verlander, but as Chipper Jones said Monday and as McCatty repeated Tuesday, the 91 mph changeup actually makes Strasburg unique. No one else, not even Verlander, features the same assortment of devastating pitches that Strasburg does.

That doesn't mean Strasburg is already the best pitcher in baseball, not at age 24 and in his first full big-league season. But it's why he stands above the other outstanding pitchers in his own rotation, why there's a little more buzz about Strasburg starts than even starts by Gio Gonzalez and Jordan Zimmermann.

The Nationals say, "Why can't we win without him?" as Ryan Zimmerman said Tuesday afternoon. And they could.

But if Tuesday night reminded us of anything, it's that Strasburg can be even more special than usual when the stage gets bigger. He compared Tuesday's atmosphere to the one at his June 2010 debut, the night he introduced himself to the big leagues by striking out 14 Pirates.

"It's great to be playing for something," Strasburg said Tuesday.

The Nationals are playing for something now, for the first time in their history. Barring a collapse that would be as bad as any in baseball history (worse even than the 2011 Red Sox, according to the computers), they'll be playing for even more in October.

Who knows if Strasburg was trying to send a message with his "lot more left in the tank" comment? If he was, who could blame him?

Of course he wants to pitch in the playoffs. Of course we would want to watch him pitch in the playoffs.

That's not to say it would be the right move. That's not to suggest there's any realistic chance it would happen.

So we can just watch games like Tuesday and think about what it would be like. He can just pitch games like Tuesday's and wonder about it, too.

I'm guessing he thinks it would be great.

And I'm guessing it would be.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/danny-knobler/19860370/after-coming-up-big-in-a-big-game,-strasburg-says-(hint,-hint?)-'there's-a-lot-more-in-the-tank'