This is Part 4 of a 30-part series of team-by-team analyses of
the 2005 MLB season. Bookmark http://www.futonreport.net for the upcoming schedule as well as all past reports.
The Nationals were the feel good story of the first half. They had a 2 1/2 game lead. They had a new home, where they had a 30-13 record in front of a new audience. Ryan Church was going to be the ROY, Livan Hernandez was to be the Cy Young winner, Chad Cordero to break the single-season save mark, Frank Robinson to be MOY, Jose Guillen the MVP.
Dr. Jekyll would have been proud.
But the second half was covered by a thick layer of Hyde.
Meltdowns, poor execution and a fierce division gravitated the Nats back down to Earth, and when the dust settled they improved all of 14 games from last year.
And still, at 81-81, they finished last in that highly-touted National League East.
The final numbers aren't very kind to a .500 team, however.
Last in the NL in batting average (.252). Last in runs scored (3.94/game). Last in homers (117). From those figures, it's amazing they won 81 games.
But the first-half success was chiefly attributed to their phenom closer Chad Cordero (1.82 ERA, 47 saves). In those 52 first-half wins, he closed out 31 of them. Two teams didn't even have 31 wins at the break.
And from that point on, their Major League third-best record fell from grace all the way to mediocrity.
However, the Nats' late season collapse will sadly overshadow their transformation in the nation's capital from a red-headed stepchild to a viable franchise worth rooting for. Baseball renaissance hit Washington and attendance numbers skyrocketed in comparison to the ticket sales in Montreal.
In short, there wasn't much hitting, but more people saw those hits.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
um, let's do the time warp again?
mlb over. Caput. Finished. Deader than a doornail. no longer with us.
nfl and nba baby.
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
What Temple says:
"Baseball's over."
What Temple means:
"Please forget about the Mariners' season."
3 - Temple Stark
you got it lol
but ichiro he he he. aw forget it. ...
4 - Matthew T. Sussman
Rest easy, Seattle's recap isn't until Dec. 3.
5 - Michael J. West
Oooh, this one hurts, Suss. I'm in DC, and I was there when they were winning and when they were losing...and it was a hard transition to make. I went to the last game of the season, too...it was embarrassing. Montreal Expos embarrassing.
On the other hand, the story of the Nats' season, as far as I'm concerned, should really be the story of baseball in Washington. We got the fever and we rallied 'round that team, becoming a baseball town like we never were under the Senators. Everyone got a Nats hat, everyone went to at least three games, and everyone talked about Cordero's night last night and what idiot thing Ryan Church said this week. It may not have been a stellar season all around, but if that's the price we pay for having a team in DC, I'll take it.
Baseball's back, and win or lose, we loved every minute of it.
6 - Matthew T. Sussman
After being the clear low draw in baseball, the Nats became the 11th best-attended home team. Better than the Braves and White Sox.
The effectively broke 35 years of bad attendance by drawing 2.5 million fans to RFK this year.
The big buzzkill after that amazing June was 13 losses in 18 games. Five of those losses were extra inning games.
7 - Michael J. West
What was particularly awful about those losses was that we spent the first half of the season just barely ekeing out victories...something like 60 percent of our wins were by just one run.
Then after the All-Star break it was the exact opposite. We were losing games by just one run. (And as you say, often they were in extra innings.)
Fate, she is a cruel, cruel mistress.