On Monday, it was the Washington Nationals’ Bryce Harper who did some chirping about the Mets, saying he doesn’t give a crap about what they do.
On Tuesday, Jayson Werth chimed in and said that the Nationals are the team to beat and that the division is theirs to lose.
“I think it’s only a matter of time really. We’re a great second-half team. We’ve been playing with half of our team hurt all year, that’s the reality of the situation.”
“When we all get back, we’ll be right there and back in first place. We are only a game back right now, but as we get healthy, we’ll be rolling again. It’s our division to lose.”
Out of curiosity, I did decide to check up on Werth’s claim and it did stand up. The Nationals had a great second half last season, going 19-10 (.655) in August and 19-8 (.704) in September. It stood up for 2013 as well.
All this means to me is that it’s going to be an exciting fight to the finish. I think our starting pitching is better than theirs and when they are healthy their offense easily tops ours.However, n the end, it could come down to who has the better bullpen, and last night after we acquired Eric O’Flaherty we significantly improved ours. The addition of Tyler Clippard has already paid big dividends already as well.
So bring it on Nationals, we’re here to stay and don’t plan on easing up anytime soon.
