The Nationals’ Mike Rizzo took advantage of some serious savings on Monday, picking up the Detroit Tigers’ Doug Fister in a deal that sent a journeyman infielder, and lefty reliever and a mid-level prospect back. Fister has been a middle of the rotation over performer for the Tigers, going 14-9 last year, tied for the league lead in induced GDPs, 2nd in home runs allowed per 9 innings (0.6) with a career 3.53 ERA.

Fister went 32-20 in three years in the Tigers organization, last year notching 159 strikeouts across 33 appearances on the way to the Tigers AL Central championship. A ground-ball pitcher of towering stature (Fister is 6’ 8”), the pickup can’t be overstated for the Nationals. They add a starter to fill the spot of the departing Haren, and it cost them just a replacement middle infielder (Steve Lombardozzi), a lefty reliever (Ian Krol), and a prospect (Robbie Ray). 

Hats off to GM Mike Rizzo for orchestrating the deal. As the first rumors surfaced (thanks to Chris Cotillo from MLB Daily Dish for his hard work breaking the news), fan approval was very high for the arrival of Fister, though some were saddened over the loss of Lombardozzi, who some believed the balm for some of the Nationals’ middle infield “issues”. I, for one, think that Dave Dombrowski might still have a tryptophan hangover to give up Fister for so little a return. The only explanation I can find is that they are far higher on the value of Robbie Ray than the Nationals are. 

Fister is arbitration-eligible this year, and is under team control through 2016. Some place his salary at just under $7M for 2014, which would be a bargain for a 32-game starter that could take 200 IP and pick up 15 wins. The Nationals won big on Cyber Monday, that much is for sure.

The one piece of good news for the assembled Nats fans on South Capitol Street Sunday is that it did not rain sulphur from the sky.

That was about the only piece of good news, though, as the Dodgers ran roughshod over Jordan Zimmermann in the first two innings. Zimmermann had been a bright light for the Nationals through the first half of the season, but that bulb blew out in the 2nd, as the Dodgers batted around and scored 7 runs. Zimmermann was forced from the game, having given up 9 hits and 7 runs, after his shortest and worst outing of the season.

The Dodgers sent 11 men to the plate during that drubbing, which saw a pair of homers, a pair of walks, two singles and a double before a nice catch from Bryce Harper in deep center managed to end the shared waking nightmare that 34,758 hot fans experienced for twenty awful minutes. Hanley Ramirez and Matt Kemp each had home runs, both at approximately 380 feet, off Zimmermann early in the inning. Just three batters into the second, the game was over for the Nationals, even if we had to watch as the rest of it played out.

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The feast or famine trend for the Nationals offense continued today, as the Nationals put six on the board in the second inning of the final game at home before the All-Star Break. Stephen Strasburg notched his fifth win of the season, improving to 5-6 with a 2.45 ERA. He allowed 4 earned runs in six innings pitched, striking out nine and walking just two. Strasburg struggled with his command at times, and he hit 3 Padres hitters. Manager Davey Johnson said after the game that “sometimes he fights himself,” and that was evident through innings four, five and six, as he failed to keep control of the Padres’ lineup.

“The offense was really there today,” Johnson said in his post game conference, and boy was he right. The Nationals batted around twice, once in the third and again in the fifth, pulling ten of their eleven runs in those two frames. Strasburg got the third started with a 9-pitch walk, and in an unusual turn of events, was sacrificed to second by leadoff man Denard Span. Desmond drew a walk and Harper a single, before Ryan Zimmerman absolutely crushed his fourth grand slam into the center field seats, putting the Nats up 5-1. A single from Jayson Werth followed, quickly paced by Anthony Rendon’s third homer of his rookie season, a beauty into the left field bullpen.

In the fifth, it was less bluster, and more blunder, that staked the Nationals to an 11-4 lead. The Padres seemed hellbent on hurting themselves. Three walks, two errors, a wild pitch and three singles contributed to their demise, as the Nationals gave the Padres a nibbled-to-death-by-ducks fate. 

Before it was all over, though, the Nationals were intent on letting the Padres back into the ballgame, and much of that can be put at Craig Stammen’s feet. Stammen struggled in relief in the seventh and eighth, allowing three runs to store, two of them earned. He was a bit snakebit, with a couple of charitable singles and errors behind him, but some odd pitch choices, and some sliders that just hung. Fortunately, Drew Storen has returned to his dominant stature, and sent he Padres packing in a row in the eight, despite loaded bases. In the ninth, Tyler Clippard slammed the door shut to give the Nationals their fourth win in a row.

The Nationals pack up and head for Philly for four games, and then head to Miami for three ahead of the All Star Game. The Nationals have recovered to within four games of the Braves, who have stumbled of late. The Nationals are three and a half up on the Phillies (now 3 games under .500) and the 32-55 Marlins are now 13.5 back of the Nationals. This would be the perfect time for the Nationals to break out of their spring-long funk and start to perform as the team that was the odds-on favorite for the World Series on Opening Day.

“It’s a long season,” Davey said, “and momentum shifts can happen at any time.”

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Adam Kilgore is right, the ball does sound different off the bat of the 20-year old, and that sonic assault was particularly sweet last night as Bryce Harper crushed a ball into the second deck of the right field stands on Wednesday night. The solo home run in the fourth tied the game for the Nats, and they wouldn’t look back from there. Ian Desmond went 3-4 with a pair of doubles and a triple, Jordan Zimmermann cruised through seven innings on just 90 pitches, and Raphael Soriano put together his fourth save as the Nationals claimed their second series at home for the season.

Like the future, the Nationals offense just isn’t evenly distributed yet. Bryce Harper (2-4, HR), Danny Espinosa (2-4, 2B, RBI) and Ian Desmond (3-4, 2 2B, 3B, 2 R) lead the squad, while Adam LaRoche (0-4, GIDP, 2 K) Ryan Zimmerman (1-4, 2 K) and Jayson Werth (1-4, 2 K) were struggling with Gavin Floyd’s pitch selection. The plate discipline from the core of the lineup was at times on Wednesday night pretty execrable. As one columnist remarked, it wasn’t until Jordan Zimmermann batted in the 3rd that the Nats had a good plate appearance.

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