The Washington Nationals (17-15) have never won a game against the Detroit Tigers (19-11), but they will try to break that losing streak during the Tigers’ first visit to Nationals Park.

The two-game series will be the first of four games the two teams will play against each other this year, and will mark the Nationals’ first opportunity since 2010 to add a win to their 0-6 record against Detroit.

The Tigers will be coming into D.C. on a hot-streak, after sweeping a four-game series against the Houston Astros and winning 10 of their last 12 games. While the Nationals have not been as consistent as the Tigers, they have been piecing together wins, taking seven of their last 11 to win two series and split one.

Many predictions have these two teams facing each other in the 2013 World Series, and the Tigers have been playing up to their hype. Playing well against them this week is an opportunity for the Nationals to remind the baseball community that they are still in the upper echelon of major league teams.

The Stats of Champions

The stats of the reigning American League and National League East champions provide a interesting comparison.

Both teams employ very successful pitching staffs, though Tigers pitchers have dominated since the start of the season while the Nationals have been slower to establish a rhythm.

Their team ERAs are within a few points of each other (Tigers 3.36, Nationals 3.53) and are ranked fifth and seventh in the MLB. The Tigers have given up the fewest home runs in the majors (16), have the second-most strikeouts (310) and the third-lowest opponent batting average (.232). The Nationals have struck out 236 batters (tied for 18th), have a .241 opponent batting average (11th) and have given up 31 home runs (18th).

On the offensive side, the Tigers outpace the Nationals significantly. The Nats have both the third-lowest team batting average (.231) and on-base percentage (.295) in the majors, while the Tigers are first in both categories (.285 AVG, .352 OBP).

The Quiet Ace

Pitching will have to carry the Nats through this series, because the offensive stats are on opposite ends of the spectrum, and Jordan Zimmermann, the Nationals’ acting ace, is just the man to do it.

Zimmermann will get the ball in the series opener, and will look to continue his streak of 18 innings without allowing a run. Almost all of his stats rank in the top ten of major league pitchers, including wins (5), ERA (1.64), batting average against (.168) and WHIP (0.75).

Zimmermann has faced only three current Tigers – Omar Infante, Torii Hunter and Anibal Sanchez – and has held them to a .158 batting average in 19 at bats.

Dan Haren followed Zimmermann’s latest gem with an impressive outing of his own, and will look to have back-to-back success again in this series. In his best performance of the year Haren pitched eight innings, giving up only one run with four strikeouts in a 3-1 win over the Atlanta Braves.

Nats Killer

Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post has noted that the Nationals offense has recently shown signs of waking up, and this series would be a great time to do so. However, it will be a hard feat to accomplish against Anibal Sanchez, whom the Nationals have historically struggled mightily against.

I know I'm a bit late to the game here, but I was unable to write until today, so I figured it was better late than never to talk about Bryce Harper's ejection by third base umpire John Hirschbeck from Sunday afternoon's game in Pittsburgh. The more I watch the video, the more amazed I am at the ejection and the set of circumstances that unfolded following the game.

So, to me, it certainly looked like Harper did swing the bat. If he didn't, it was close enough that it's pretty hard to be mad at Hirschbeck's initial strike call. Harper may not have broken his wrists, but his entire torso had turned around and the bat advanced pretty far across the plate. Harper showed his displeasure at the call by throwing his hands in the air. Should he have done that? No. Did he show up the umpire by doing it? Maybe, but that's in the eye of the beholder.

Hirschbeck then became the aggressor. He started screaming down the line at Harper, mimicking his arm gestures, and walking in his direction. Harper stood in the box in disbelief, but Hirschbeck continued down the line, prompting Nats third base coach Trent Jewett to get in between the umpire and Harper as Hirschbeck appeared to point Harper back to the dugout. To be clear, Harper wasn't moving toward Hirschbeck. He actually started to walk away.

What happened next prompted the ejection as, according to Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post, "Hirschbeck told a pool reporter he had 'no recourse' but to throw out Harper after he raised his arms over his head, then 'threw his bat' and 'slammed his helmet down.'" You may be able to argue that Harper tossed his bat, but he definitely didn't throw it or spike it. It's hard to see how anyone can truly argue that his helmet was "slammed" into the ground. He hardly had "no recourse."

Hirschbeck, from the moment Harper looked miffed at the strike three call, seemed to be looking to toss the Nationals young star from the game. There have been far too many circumstances with umpires becoming the story in recent seasons. I'm not even talking about when the umpires blow a call. These guys are usually very good, and even the best will make mistakes. However, these kinds of emotional displays from umpires, further evidenced by the Tom Hallion and David Price situation this season, need to be addressed, and there needs to be more accountability for umpires as there are for players.

This post was updated on May 7, 2013 at 6:10 pm after the previously linked video was removed from the source. New image from notsportscenter.com.

The Nats did exactly what we thought they needed to over the last week, as Craig mentioned in Episode 51 of the podcast. We talk about Jordan Zimmermann's insane performance, Bryce Harper's ejection and injury, and Ryan Zimmerman's throwing, among many other things. Enjoy the listen and pay attention for the word of the week and share it with us on Twitter.

The Washington Nationals (15-14) just split a series against their rival Atlanta Braves by winning the final two games of a four-game series at Turner Field. They will look to keep that momentum going as they continue their road trip up north against the Pittsburg Pirates (16-12).

The Pirates started out hot at the beginning of last season, and had a first-place 48-37 record at the All-Star break before finishing the year under .500 and in fourth place in the NL Central (79-83). This year, they have had a similarly strong start and currently sit in second place in the NL Central, one game behind the first-place St. Louis Cardinals.

The Nationals and the Pirates are set to face each other seven times this year, and after going 2-3 against them last year the Nats will be looking to start the season series off right with a win.

Martin the Masher

Last season with the Yankees was one of the worst of catcher Russell Martin’s career. He finished with a .211/.311/.403 slash line and 95 strikeouts, the most of his career. However, he did hit the most home runs he’s hit in a single season of his career (21), and he has come out swinging for the fences again in 2013.

Martin is not usually a home run hitter – his next homer will be just the 100th of his eight-year career – but he has hit all six of his home runs this year in his last twelve games. His current batting average is .274 and he leads the Pirates in slugging percentage (.560)

He is a .229 career hitter against Nationals pitchers with 18 strikeouts in 83 at-bats. Though he has hit one home run against the Nats, we will see if his hot-hitting ways continue in this series against a team that that has given up just 26 home runs all year (eighth lowest in the majors).

Star Power

A.J. Burnett, the Pirates' ace who has been one of their most valuable assets so far this season, will start in the series opener. Burnett has the most strikeouts in the National League (48), and has been striking out batters at a rate of 12.3 per nine innings. He also has the 10th-lowest batting average against in the majors (.211).

Conversely, the face of their franchise, center fielder Andrew McCutchen, has been underperforming. The two-time All-Star is batting .238 with a .297 on-base percentage and only three home runs. Despite the lack of contribution from their star, the Pirates have continued to win games, which MLB.com reporter Tom Singer thinks is a good sign for the Pirates chances of success, as their success in the past has correlated strongly with McCutchen's performance. 

McCutchen has an impressive history of accomplishments against the Nationals. He is batting .500 against Nationals pitchers in 42 career at-bats with five home runs and five strikeouts, and he will be looking for his bat to come alive against them again in his home park.

Burnett is 7-3 with a 3.33 ERA against the Nationals in 15 appearances, and current Nats have a .250 batting average against him with 33 strikeouts and four home runs.

Injury Update

Bryce Harper should remain in the lineup as he continues to play with a bruised side. Jayson Werth may miss a few days with a tight hamstring.

In The Zone

Ian Desmond (SS) .346 AVG, .370 OBP, .654 SLG, 1 HR (last seven games)

Who’s Hot?

Russell Martin (C) .409 AVG, .409 OBP, 1.045 SLG, 4 HR (last five games)

Starling Marte (LF) .320 AVG, .414 OBP, .600 SLG, 2 HR (last six games)

Who’s Not?

Pedro Alvarez (3B) .208 AVG, .231 OBP, .333 SLG, 7 SO (last six games)

Andrew McCutchen (CF) .250 AVG, .286 OBP, .400 SLG, 3 SO (last five games)

Probable Starters

5/3, Ross Detwiler (1-2, 2.03 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 16 SO) vs. A.J. Burnett (2-2, 2.83 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 48 SO)

5/4, Stephen Strasburg (1-4, 3.13 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 36 SO) vs. Jeff Locke (3-1, 2.83 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 16 SO)

5/5, Gio Gonzalez (2-2, 5.34 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 36 SO) vs. Wandy Rodriguez (2-1, ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 18 SO)

The Nats Blog will be taking the weekend off from providing post-game coverage, but we will be back on Tuesday for the series against the Detroit Tigers.

The Nationals finally saw exactly what they hoped to see from Dan Haren when he signed the one-year/$13 million deal this past offseason. His outing against Atlanta, in what he admitted after the game felt like a must-win contest, was absolutely stellar. The Nats beat the Braves 3-1 as they moved back above the .500 mark and within 2.5 games of the division-leading Braves, which is exactly how they started the series.

Haren pitched eight masterful innings, taking a cue from Jordan Zimmermann's eight inning masterpiece the night before. He made it through those eight innings on 90 pitches, allowing just one run on four hits and a walk. His start earned an impressive Game Score of 73. In comparison, Jordan Zimmermann's last two game scores were 88 (complete game shutout vs. Cincinnati) and 86 (eight inning shutout vs. Atlanta.)

Haren finally was able to keep the ball down in the zone, and he was comfortable with is drop in velocity. He threw his cutter and splitter almost exclusively, both hovering in the mid-80s on the radar gun. The Braves went up swinging early and often, and despite only striking out four, he got a lot of quick outs. Entering the eighth inning, Haren had thrown just 69 pitches. The 21 pitch eighth where he got into what was the closest to a "jam" he was in all game spelled the end to his fantastic night.

The Nats offense still hasn't lit up the run column lately, but the fantastic pitching they've gotten has rescued them as it did in April 2012. Denard Span continues to show his value as the Nats center fielder with a 3-for-4 night with a walk. He was at least partially responsible for all three of the Nats runs by knocking in two and scoring one himself. He's currently hitting .292 and getting on-base at a .364 clip, rivaling Ian Desmond for the hottest hitter on team right now.

A split in this four-game series was the best case scenario, not just after losing the first two, but because it's incredibly difficult to win a four-game series. The Braves now face the Mets at home, but then they have to go on the road for a 10-day road trip against the Reds, Giants, and Diamondbacks. The Nats don't have the easiest schedule ahead, either, but at least the Braves aren't going to skate on easy street.

The Nationals have had a rough go of it against the Braves going back to September last season. Until Wednesday, the Nats had lost their last eight against their rivals, but the Nats new stopper, Jordan Zimmermann, was on the mound to take care of business in a 2-0 victory that allowed them to return to the .500 mark at 14-14.

Jordan Zimmermann has quickly emerged as the Nationals best starting pitcher in the early part of the 2013 season. Through five starts, Zimmermann had already thrown two complete games, including a shutout his last time on the mound in just 91 pitches. He hasn't given up more than three earned runs all season, and that was in his complete game against the Marlins on April 15.

Zimmermann was able to take advantage of the Braves lineup for eight strong innings on the way to the Nats first victory of the season against them. He was at 107 pitches through eight, and he probably could've finished the game, but Davey Johnson wisely decided to use Rafael Soriano for the save. Zimmermann didn't allow a run or a walk, surrendered just two hits, and struck out a season-high eight batters. The Braves are known for their propensity to strike out, after all. Zimmermann has now lowered his season ERA to 1.64, and he has a downright incredible 2.93 FIP.

On the offensive side of things, there still wasn't much to get excited for on the Nationals. In the fourth inning, Bryce Harper walked to lead off the inning. Ian Desmond, in his first career game hitting cleanup, blasted his fourth home run of the season immediately after Harper's walk to give the Nats their only two runs of the game. Luckily, because of JZimm's performance, it's all they'd need.

In other major news on the injury front, Bryce Harper grounded out to Freddie Freeman in the sixth inning. Prior to that out, he tried to pull back on a check swing and immediately favored his left side. He was removed from the game, which immediately fueled speculation of a huge problem for the Nats. Apparently, after crashing into the wall trying to catch Tim Hudson's home run on Tuesday night, Harper's left side is pretty banged up. The Nats trainers and Harper believe it's just related to that, and it's not a serious injury that will keep him out for any length of time. He's currently day-to-day.

So the Nationals win another gorgeous game from Jordan Zimmermann, who is now 5-1 on the season. The offense is still something to be a bit concerned about, but Jayson Werth should be back soon from his ankle and hamstring issues, Ryan Zimmerman will be back with the team on Friday after completing a brief rehab stint in Potomac, and Bryce Harper doesn't look to be seriously hurt. Hopefully having those guys back in the lineup together again will help spark the offense by the end of the week.

The most interesting thing related to the Nationals on television on Tuesday night certainly wasn't the game against the Braves, which the Nats lost 8-1. No, I imagine there were many Nats fans that switched to ESPN at 9 pm in the east when the new documentary, Bryce Begins, aired. Say what you will about the sports conglomerate's coverage of actual sporting events, but they know how to put together a sports documentary better than just about anyone. (Ken Burns anyone?)

I'd like to say that there are a whole bunch of positives for the Nats to take from this game, but I can't in good conscience, do that. Ian Desmond got a hit, extending his hitting streak to seven games and ticking his average above the .300 mark. Three of those seven games have been multi-hit games. If I wanted to draw another positive, no one got hurt. So that's something.

The rest didn't go so well. The Nats were able to record just three hits and one run against Tim Hudson en route to his 200th career win. Only Denard Span, Tyler Moore, and Desmond got in the hit column on just a dreadful night of offense.

The Nats pitching didn't have that kind of night. Gio Gonzalez had a ridiculously weird pitching line. He struck out nine batters through just four innings, but he gave up five runs on seven hits and five walks. That's the most batters he's punched out in a game so far this season, but it's also the most walks surrendered. He looked to have absolutely no feel for the game out there, and as good as he looked in his eight inning, one hit outing last time, he looked just as uncomfortable against the Braves offense.

Zach Duke had been going well for a while as he came in for some long relief of Gio. He hadn't given up a run and had allowed just three hits and two walks in his last four appearances. There was an ugly moment, pictured above, when Tim Hudson hit an opposite field home run off of Bryce Harper's glove, too.

When the wheels come off for Duke, they tend to come way off this season. In his three outings where he's given up an earned run, he's given up five, two, and three earned runs, respectively. In those three games, they were all mop-up roles for huge losses, so it's not like him giving up those runs had a huge detrimental consequence on the Nats winning a game versus losing one.

Mark Zuckerman of CSN Washington reported after the game that Ian Desmond was going around to players lockers telling them not to leave after they were done with their interviews and post-game rituals. Presumably, the Nats were going to have a meeting to discuss how they could turn things around.

With the loss, the Nats fell below .500 again at 13-14, and they also dropped to 0-5 in the season series against their main NL East rival. It's still early in the season with 135 games left to play, but they don't have "it's April" to fall back on anymore. It's May 1, and it's time for the team widely regarded as the best team in baseball before the season started to begin playing like it.

Tyler Clippard has dealt with some inconsistency early this season with no example more clear than his outing in Atlanta on Monday where he allowed two base runners and gave up the losing run. When his stuff has been on, which it has been quite a bit this season, it's been electric and dominant, but Clippard has always had a tendency to leave pitches up in the zone. He can usually get by on changing speeds effectively with his great changeup, but he's had less success pitching up in the zone early on this year.

For some historical context, let's look at the breakdown of the kind of numbers that batters have put up against Clippard in Aprils since 2010:

He was able to have significant success both in April 2010 and 2011, his All-Star season. He faced a whole lot of batters over a lot of innings, mostly because he was the most reliable bullpen arm in what were a couple of very lean pitching years for the Nats. He managed to keep opponents off base almost three-quarters of the time in April of those seasons, and he generated a whole lot of swings and misses.

Last season, he struggled out of the gate really for the first time in his career. Clippard and Davey Johnson put his early woes on shoulder trouble, as Patrick Reddington of Federal Baseball wrote last April. Clippard's numbers fluctuated throughout the season, having great months and not so great ones. If his April 2012 struggles were an anomaly, we could easily put it on those lingering shoulder issues from spring. After all, it was the worst first month for him of any season with the Nationals.

In April 2013, Clippard's inconsistency has reappeared. He's not as dominant as he was in early 2010 or 2011, but he's also not as bad as he was for just about all of April 2012. He's not giving up many hits at all, evidenced by his .147 batting average against, but that low average makes an otherwise decent 1.258 WHIP more alarming. Dig a little deeper, and you'll see that Clippard's strikeout numbers have gone down while his walks have gone way up: 7.8 K/9 compared to 6.97 BB/9, making for a disappointing K/BB ratio.

It is possible that wear and tear after throwing 262.1 innings in the past three seasons plus a month have just taken a toll on his body in a way that won't let him pitch in the way to which we've be come accustomed. It's also entirely possible that it's the same early season issues he had early in 2012, and he'll rebound to become the same kind of pitcher that helped him save 32 games in 2012. It's too early to know for sure, but that doesn't mean it's not worth looking at past April performances to see if this is consistent with anything he's done before.

To me, the biggest concern for Clippard is pitch location, and that issue is two-fold. The first, he consistently leaves pitches up in the zone and giving batters a much better chance to make contact. If his changeup doesn't do an effective job getting the timing for those hitters off, he's going to have trouble. The second, averaging almost seven walks per nine innings early is a small sample size, but it's more than he's given up in any previous April in his career.

Once Clippard makes an adjustment to fix one of those two location-related issues, and I think he will, the other one may be resolved by default. He's going to have to make some sort of adjustment and start throwing better pitches, though, or these numbers aren't just going to be an April anomaly.