While the Atlanta Braves have won six of their last seven in an attempt to climb back atop the NL East, the Nationals won't let them gain any ground. Washington has won ten games in a row and 13 of their last 15.
The latest Nationals win came during yesterday's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The game entered the ninth inning tied at 0-0 and Denard Span hit a one-out single to get things going. He then stole second base when Anthony Rendon was at the plate. Rendon then hit a chopper to D-Backs third baseman Jordan Pacheco, who committed a throwing error allowing Span to score for the walk-off victory.
And that's not the only walk-off triumph of the Nationals' 10-game winning streak. That was their third walk-off win against the D-Backs during their four game series and they also had two such wins in their previous three-game set against the Pittsburgh Pirates. This was the third series in a row that the Nationals swept (Mets in three games, Pirates in three games, and D-Backs in four games). They open their next series at home tonight against the San Francisco Giants.
The Nationals' current win streak has tied their franchise record as well as the longest streak of the 2014 MLB season that was originally set by the Kansas City Royals. If Washington can pull off a win tonight against Tim Hudson and the Giants, it would be the longest win streak by a D.C. professional baseball team since 1933 when the Senators won 13 in a row (they also won the pennant that year).
Washington is now 20 games over .500 and sits seven games ahead of the Atlanta Braves for the NL East division lead. If they manage to pull out wins in their next two games with Doug Fister and Jordan Zimmermann on the mound, they will join the ranks of some of the best win streaks in National League history during the modern baseball era (the longest win streak in recent years in the NL was the Braves' 15 in 2000).
"We just feel confident that somehow, some way we're going to find a way to inch off a victory," said Span, in this ESPN article.
If he's right, maybe the Nationals can catch the Giants' MLB record of 26 wins in a row set back in 1916.
