Washington Nationals pitching staff suddenly on fire

When Max Scherzer was placed on the Injured List, that seemed to be the final nail in the Washington Nationals‘ coffin. The team had underperformed all season, with the starting rotation struggling in particular. Having one of the top pitchers in the game on the sideline for a team with those pitching problems seemed to be the death knell for the Nationals.

The thing is, someone forgot to let the Nationals know that was the case. Although they remain in fourth place, four games under .500, they have been on a bit of a run, having won five consecutive games. They even closed the gap with the first place Mets on Friday, defeated New York 1-0 as Yan Gomes had a walk-off base hit.

Washington Nationals run fueled by surprising pitching staff

While the Nationals’ run of success may be a bit of a surprise, the biggest shock is how it has happened. Washington has allowed only seven runs in total in their last eight games. For comparison, the Nationals had allowed at least seven runs 11 times thus far in 2021, and allowed seven runs in the game before this impressive streak began.

Meanwhile, the Nationals have not allowed more than two runs in any of their last eight games, with the pitching staff combining for three shutouts. They have needed that performance during this run, as the offense has scored just 23 runs in that span, eight of which came in an outburst against the Pirates on Wednesday.

It was easy to consider the Nationals as dead in the water. There had been far more speculation as to who may be traded as to any possible moves that could improve their postseason chances. After all, they had just a 3.8% chance of reaching the playoffs entering Friday night, a number that had increased by 0.7% over the previous week.

This is not the first time that the Nationals have been in this type of a situation. They were considered out of the postseason hunt in 2019, only to come roaring back and win the World Series. Although they were much healthier when their run in 2019 began, the Nationals still had to remake their entire bullpen on the fly and hurdle almost the entire National League to reach the postseason.

The Washington Nationals pitching staff has impressed over the past eight games. They have needed that shutdown performance.