The
Washington Nationals:
Annual History *

2016: Bouncing back to win a third division title

The Washington Nationals underwent some major roster changes during the off-season: a new manager (Dusty Baker), a new second baseman (Daniel Murphy), a new center fielder (Ben Revere), and at least four new relief pitchers. Revere was on the DL from early April until early May, but otherwise the team was pretty healthy until late in the season. Veteran players Jayson Werth and Ryan Zimmerman both had below-average batting averages in April, but Werth improved greatly in May and June. The Nationals had their best win-loss ever for the month of April, 16-7, as Bryce Harper had nine home runs that month. He cooled off in May (as did the team), but Daniel Murphy was simply amazing at the plate. His batting average remained close to .400 until early June, and then gradually declined to "normal" levels. But with superb hitting by Wilson Ramos (and for a while, Danny Espinosa), coupled with mostly solid pitching, the Nats at midseason had a firm grasp on the division lead. In late July, after several bullpen failures (most notably, blown saves by Jonathan Papelbon), the Nats acquired Mark Melancon in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sparked by phenomenal hitting and base-stealing by rookie Trea Turner, in August the Nats widened their lead over the Mets, and clinched the NL East championship on September 24, in spite of injuries to Wilson Ramos and Stephen Strasburg, who both missed the 2016 postseason. After taking a 2 games to 1 lead in the National League Divisional Series against the L.A. Dodgers, the Nationals flinched and failed to advance in the MLB playoffs. As a small consolation, Max Scherzer won the Cy Young Award, the first time a Nationals pitcher has been so honored.

Starting positions, 2016

CF: Ben Revere $ .217 Trea Turner $ * .342; Michael Taylor * .231

LF: Jayson Werth .244 Chris Heisey $ *.216

RF: Bryce Harper .243

SS: Danny Espinosa .209

2B: Daniel Murphy $ .347 Stephen Drew * .266

3B: Anthony Rendon .270

PITCHING ROTATION Max Scherzer (2.96) Tanner Roark (2.83) Stephen Strasburg (3.60) * Gio Gonzalez (4.57) Joe Ross (3.43) * Mark Melancon (1.82) * $ (closer)

1B: Ryan Zimmerman .218 Clint Robinson $ * .235

C: Wilson Ramos .307 Jose Lobaton

Batting average for position players, ERA for pitchers. Manager: Dusty Baker $

$ -- new player; * (asterisk) -- Played for less than half the season in this position.

New contracts of note

• Danny Espinosa (AE) -- 1 year, $2.9 million (Jan.)
• Ben Revere (AE) -- 1 year, $6.2 million (Jan.)
• Stephen Strasburg (AE) -- 1 year, $10.4 million (Jan.)
• Anthony Rendon (AE) -- 1 year, $2.8 million (Jan.)

"+" = bonus incentives for salary, or optional extension (mutual or otherwise) for contract length. "D" = part of salary is deferred. "AE" = arbitration eligible. "FA" = free agent signing. Dollar figures are rounded.

Nationals, 2016: best batting and pitching records

Batting average		Home runs		RBIs		ERA		Wins		Strikeouts
Daniel Murphy	.347	Daniel Murphy	25	Daniel Murphy	104	Tanner Roark	2.83	Max Scherzer	20	Max Scherzer	284

 

Nationals' head-to-head matchups, 2016

Opponent	Wins	Losses
ARI	5	2
ATL	15	4
BAL	1	3
BOS	0	0
CHC	2	5
CHW	2	1
CIN	4	3
CLE	2	2
COL	2	4
DET	2	1
HOU	0	0
KC	2	1
LAA	0	0
LAD	1	5
MIA	10	9
MIL	2	4
MIN	3	0
NYM	12	7
NYY	0	0
OAK	0	0
PHI	14	5
PIT	4	2
SD	3	4
SEA	0	0
SF	4	3
STL	5	2
TB	0	0
TEX	0	0
TOR	0	0
Totals	95	67

2016 memorable moments

• April 19, 2016 -- Nats hit 4 home runs in 7th inning, incl. Bryce Harper's grand slam; WSH 7, MIA 0
• April 23, 2016 -- Tanner Roark strikes out 15 in 7 innings; WSH 2, MIN 0
• April 24, 2016 -- Bryce Harper HR in 9th inn., Oliver Perez bunt RBI in 15th, Chris Heisey HR in 16th inn.; WSH 7, MIN 5
• May 4, 2016 -- Nats 6 runs in 1st inn., 3 HRs, 1 triple, 3 doubles; WSH 13, KC 2
• May 9, 2016 -- Clint Robinson walk-off HR in 9th inn.; WSH 5, DET 4
• May 11, 2016 -- Max Scherzer throws 20 strikeouts, ties MLB record; WSH 3, DET 2
• May 24, 2016 -- Five Nationals hit home runs; WSH 7, NYM 4
• May 29, 2016 -- Jayson Werth hits his 1st pinch-hit grand slam in 7th inn.; WSH 10, STL 2
• June 12, 2016 -- Jayson Werth hits a walk-off two-run single in 9th inn.; WSH 5, PHI 4
• June 15, 2016 -- After Nats fall behind in top of 12th inn., Jayson Werth hits a walk-off RBI "single"; WSH 5, CHC 4
• June 27, 2016 -- After falling behind 4-0 by middle of 3rd inn., Nats come back strong; WSH 11, NYM 4
• July 17, 2016 -- After Daniel Murphy homers to tie it the 9th inning, Pirates homer in the 18th inning; PIT 2, WSH 1
• July 29, 2016 -- Ryan Zimmerman executes 3-3-5 triple play in 8th inn., squelching Giants rally; WSH 4, SF 1 @
• Aug. 1, 2016 -- Nationals unleash torrent of hits, incl. 3 by Stephen Strasburg, but no homers; WSH 14, ARI 1 @
• Aug. 25, 2016 -- Homer by Jayson Werth, 10 strikeouts by Max Scherzer avert sweep by Orioles; WSH 4, BAL 0

"@" = away game

Nationals, 2016: month-by-month summary

Month	Wins	Losses	NL East place (at end)	Number of home games	Total attendance	Average attendance
April 2016	16	7	1	12	313,734	26,145
May 2016	16	14	1	14	448,184	32,013
June 2016	16	11	1	10	357,220	35,722
July 2016	13	12	1	15	493,825	32,922
Aug. 2016	17	11	1	13	429,359	33,028
Sept. 2016	17	12	1	17	439,616	25,860
TOTAL 2016	95	67	1	81	2,481,938	30,641
SOURCE: My unofficial daily tabulations from MLB Gameday stats, Washington Post, and other newspapers. Attendance data corrected, based on baseball-reference.com.