The Nationals are beginning to rally, climbing back into the NL East race with back-to-back wins against the Mets, including a come-from-behind victory Monday night in which they scored seven runs in the final two innings.
"When you're 6-1 in the eighth, obviously we've never, in the history of the Nationals, came back from a 6-1 in the eighth deficit before," said Nats GM Mike Rizzo during his weekly appearance with The Sports Junkies, sponsored by Burke & Herbert Bank. "So yeah, you're thinking about tomorrow and you're hoping to string a few things together."
Rizzo disagreed with the premise, though, that it felt like the Mets were running away with the division after such a hot start. The Mets were a freight train out of the gate this spring, starting off 12-2 with a 3-0 sweep over the Nats in their first head-to-head matchup this month.
"Anything can happen in the game," Rizzo said. "I just disagree with the original premise. It's a big series for April baseball. That's how I look at it. It was as big as it gets in April, but it's April, and we play these guys 16 more times throughout the season."
"We haven't begun to gel with some of the new players we have, the new bench we have, the new coaching staff we have, the new manager," he said. "And don't forget, you've got three of your best players that aren't in the lineup, so you're scratching together a lineup with Moises Sierra hitting fifth, and Michael Taylor and (Wilmer) Difo, and (Pedro) Severino and the pitcher. That's your final five hitters in the lineup."
"Hey, we're trying to get our footing here. We're trying to play good baseball," he added.
"We're trying to scratch out some runs, allow our great pitching and our great bullpen to keep us in games and our big boys to carry us. Harp has carried us along with Howie Kendrick in the early going, and we're just trying to scratch together some victories until we get our real lineup in there."
Rizzo says Tuesday's 5-2 victory at Citi Field was "probably the cleanest, best baseball game that we've played so far this season and a really brutal night to play, man. It had to be in the 20s. Those guys were wearing sweatshirts, and gloves, and hats and earmuffs on the field, and were trying to play a baseball game. We played a good, clean game and we're hoping that continues."
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