Signing Max Scherzer was assumed to be an over-the-top move, a boulder-sized cherry on top of an already fierce pitching rotation. His $210 million contract caused anguish from outsiders, plus laughs and predictions from teammates. The latter two notably came from Bryce Harper, who asked where his championship ring was after the signing and proclaimed the Washington Nationals the best team in the league as recently as last week.
Yet, two series against the New York Mets since the all-star break have come and gone without Scherzer. Following a tumultuous weekend in New York, the Nationals’ division lead was also gone.
It’s early August, and the season has been reset. The Mets’ roaring sweep at home has yanked the can’t-do-right franchise into a virtual tie with the Nationals with just more than 60 games to play. The National League East division title is the prize for each. A wild card spot is less feasible. The match race with the Mets has begun.
This was when the Nationals were supposed to stride away from the Mets. New York didn’t have the bats or bullpen or karma to make a move. They came to Washington out of the all-star break with their starting pitching heavies aligned to face the Nationals and left another game back. The Nationals’ home brushback of the Mets was followed by the return of multiple injured players. The Nationals were becoming whole, ready to move into Harper’s, and many others’, predicted status.
Two weeks later, the manager’s decisions are talk-radio fodder. Effectiveness of the bullpen outside of Drew Storen and new cowboy Jonathan Papelbon is in question. The Mets are giddy, and the Nationals are expecting a rebound during a homestand against sub-.500 teams.
The manager in question, Matt Williams, remains in his steady, stoic mode. On Monday afternoon, he once again explained the day-by-day processing he feels is necessary. Just another block stacked on, no matter if a handful of them melted in the heat of days prior.
“Regardless whether we would have had a good weekend or not, it’s still the same,” Williams said. “We have to play this team now.”
He answered lineup questions pertaining to Bryce Harper hitting fourth.
“I think the stats speak for themselves,” Williams said. “He enjoys fourth, he would prefer fourth. Given a full opportunity, with everybody, understanding that Denard [Span is] in there in his spot, Anthony [Rendon is] in his spot, Jayson [Werth] is in his normal spot, it creates opportunity for Bryce. That’s the ideal. We haven’t had the ideal.”
Williams was asked about how Storen could be used now that Papelbon is a doorway and two lockers over from him with unkempt hair and a foam football rocket in hand.
“Depends on the game,” Williams. “Depends on where we’re at in that particular game, what inning it is, who’s available and who isn’t, so there’s a lot that goes into it.”
The results of the weekend’s flashback-inducing decisions were plenty to stir debate about what was put into them. Among a handful of questioned decisions — neither Papelbon or Storen pitched in the series, rookie starter Joe Ross was left in to face Lucas Duda, who had hit a home run off him — the Nationals chose to walk Yoenis Cespedes. The free-swinging Cuban is hitting .181 against left-handers this season and .248 for his career, which is 28 points lower than his career average against right-handers. He was 1-for-2 with a walk in his career against Matt Thornton, yet he was intentionally walked so Thornton could have a lefty-lefty matchup against Duda, the planet’s hottest hitter. It was a rare instance where gut and math agreed on a choice. The Nationals went the other way. The results were poor.
Handling a bullpen is an easy jump-off point when grumbling about a manager. For Williams, it will be a key measurement after his choices during his first postseason as a manager did not work. It’s his monkey to extricate.
But, the Nationals are grappling with spunky Mets manager Terry Collins’ group because of multi-faceted and months-long travails. Injuries have been expansive. Equally crucial has been the lack of dominance from the pitching staff.
Scherzer has been strapped to the plow as he tries to make up for the shortcomings of his rotation mates. Jordan Zimmermann has a career-high .274 batting average against. Gio Gonzalez’s WHIP is the highest it has been since 2009, when he had a 5.75 ERA and murky major league future. Gravity is not pushing Doug Fister’s sinker as it once did. Stephen Strasburg, who pitched perhaps his final rehabilitation start on Monday night, has trudged through a wholly ineffective season that he can barely get started.
That allowed the Mets to evolve into what the Nationals were supposed to be. Aligning Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard provides New York with an emphasized starting point. The Nationals have only questions behind Scherzer, an almost unfathomable situation before the season. New York is third in MLB in ERA. The Nationals are ninth.
Six games with the Mets remain, three in Washington from Sept. 7 to Sept. 9 and a season-closing series in re-engaged Flushing.
“I think we have a team here that’s going to rise to the occasion,” Papelbon said Monday afternoon. “We’re not going to back down. We’re not going to settle for anything but winning each night, one night at a time.”
Suddenly in a believable division battle, that will need to be a result as much as a mantra.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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