The Nationals pitching has been phenomenal overall, and leading the Majors which is why the Nationals were able to get to a season’s best 20 games over .500 on Saturday. The offense, however, has been lagging after a great June for the team. This month so far the Nats are batting .228 as a team with a .310 OBP and .407 slugging with a .718 OPS after an .810 OPS for the month of June as the Nationals are 92 points lower in offense from June to July.
It seems fairly clear that the once hot Jayson Werth has fallen off once again on offense, and the culprit could be the lack of rest days leading up to the All Star break. Jayson is 2nd on the team in July plate appearances, and just one behind Bryce Harper for the month.
Speaking of Bryce Harper, his .344 OBP and .748 OPS are his worst month of the season so far, and his doubleplays are 3 for the month with the next highest player(s) are at 1.
We saw a similar team offensive trend last year as the pitching got better the offense started to decline. Of course these are small sample sizes, and yesterday’s 18 inning clunker did not help the offensive production unless of course your Daniel Murphy.
The good news is the Nats offense seems to go in cycles, and hopefully can trend up again soon. Rest days should be watched especially for Jayson Werth and Wilson Ramos who are both trending down.
As mentioned, the Nats pitching is #1 in the Majors, and the next closest team is not really close.
