It was not déjà vu all over again as Yogi used to say. The Nats this time took care of business and did not repeat the same mistakes of 2015. The Nationals swept the Mets in 3 games this week with dramatic flair, and all 3 games were televised for the national TV audiences to see this is not the same Washington Nationals.
Some were begging for ledgecam™ last night as Mets fans took to the blogs and were jumping off ledges:
On July 31st of last year the Nationals were in the same exact spot coming into the series up +3 games in the standings with a head-to-head match-up series with their rival Mets. This year the Mets and Marlins are both in the mix making the picture a little more complicated.
Last year the Nats were swept by the Mets and lost the 3 game lead over the Mets and the Nats never sniffed 1st place again in 2015, and this year the Nats swept the Mets and expanded their lead over the Mets from +3 games to +6 games and now the Marlins are in 2nd place and +5 1/2 back of the 1st Place Nationals.
The Nationals ended up with a 2015 head-to-head record with the Mets at 8-11 in the 19 game record. If the Nats went 12-7 last year against the Mets, it would have been the Nats winning the NL East with a 87-75 record instead of their 83-79 actual record.
The biggest games really are against your division rivals. We could look back to Monday night when the Nats overcame a 4-0 deficit against the Mets to win 11-4 as the game of the 2016 season much as the Mets credit their walk-off win against the Nats on July 31st of 2015 as their biggest win of the 2015 season.
