So, the Nats are good. I mean, really good. I mean, the first time a Washington team has been this good since 1945 (the last time a Washington team was 20 games over .500), and maybe even 1933 (the last Washington Series team). The Nats have a pitching staff for the ages — just watched Jordan Zimmermann, ostensibly their number three starter, beat the Brewers in Milwaukee, 4-1, lowering his ERA to 2.31. He’s had a streak of 22 6-or-more inning starts and all of his starts this year have been quality starts (at least six innings, less than three earned runs) — and he’s supposedly the number three guy. Well, right now he’s number one, and even when Strasburg has to go on the shelf, this team’s staff is still good enough to do damage.
After scuffling a lot of the year, the offense has picked it up over the last month or so, finally scoring at a really good clip. They actually score runs now, which is helping the staff out tremendously, especially if they happen to have a rare off night. Combine that with the improved defense and the fact that they’ll be getting more guys back from injury not to long from now and you’ve got a team that can challenge just about anybody in October.
So this is what baseball’s like in, say, New York or LA or St. Louis. Feels pretty nice.
As for my original, pre-new-hometown-team NL East team, the Phillies… well, it’s probably best taht we not talk about the Phillies.
Been reading a lot of automotive history stuff recently. That’s a common theme for me, of course, but I guess it’s started to be more of a thing for me due to buying a 1980 MGB a few months ago. I’ve been making my way through the Haynes Classic Makes series, enjoying the British perspective on makes famous, once-upon-a-time famous, or never-been-famous here in the States — Triumph, MG, Jaguar, TVR, Aston Martin. I’ve also read the Haynes books about Alfa Romeo, Lamborghini and Maserati, and next up after finishing up the TVR one I’m reading now is the Porsche one. There are a few in the series that I haven’t purchased yet. I’ve never been into Morgan that much, but I’ll probably pick it up at some point. Definitely want the Lotus, Austin-Healey and Volvo ones, though.
More later.