Only 3 un-earned runs so far -- that is good defense.

The Nat’s are playing good defense.  So far,  the Nat’s have given up 3 unearned runs; the unearned runs have not cost the team any games.  At this time last year, the team had something like 16 unearned runs, costing us 3.5 games (0.5 was given 1.5 times when without the unearned runs, the team would have ben tied).   Last year, on this day, the team was 7-9; without the unearned runs, they would have been 10.5-5.5, but having played a tougher schedule (series against the Mets, Red Sox, and Cardinals. 

I could make the case that without the errors, the team could have been better than this year’s team.   However, they had the errors; that was part of last year’s DNA.

Instead of 7-9 of April 23, the Nat’s are 13-4.

Last year, the best record vs.  .500 was 10 games up around the AllStar game.   This year, the team is 9 games above .500 at 17 games. 

However, baseball is a streaky game; last year they had a streak of 20-5,   But, I think they are a better team than last year. 

At this point, through basically three weeks of the season,  they remain in First Place.

Week 1 they were 2-1.  Week 2, they were 7-0; week three, 4-3.  Are they cooling off? I don’t know.  They have a total of 4 loses:  2 Roark losses, 1 bad start by Scherzer and a blown save.  Everyone else has been lights out.  ERA, Scherzer is 4.32, but mostly because of the last start. Roark is 2.63; Gio 1.42; Stras 1.25 and Ross 0.54.  (not bad for the #5 starter). 

The only other high ERA is from Papelbon, who has 3 ERs, two in one outing (BS).  So, I am not too worried about that.

How is the team relative to projections?  My preseason projections, which was 96 wins, had the Nats at 11-6 right now.  Instead, the Nats are 13-4.

Werth and Espinoza are both hitting better; Werth has a positive WAR and Espy has a zero WAR for the week.  If they can hit, they this lineup will be with only 1 hole: Michael A. Taylor.  Heck, the pitchers are doing better than him.

Overall, if the team continues to play as is, 100 wins is a reasonable target.  (They will not continue to win at a 123 win pace, though). Baring significant injuries, we will have October Baseball (at least with the Marlins on Oct 1 & 2).