The Nationals' first series of the season looked an awful lot like any number of games the team played last year on its way to a 59-102 record, the worst in baseball. But even though the team scored just 13 runs in a three-game sweep at the hands of the Florida Marlins, both manager Manny Acta and hitting coach Rick Eckstein saw signs of progress.
Washington hit just .236 in the series, but its team on-base percentage was 72 points higher, largely due to the 10 walks the Nationals drew Wednesday in a 6-4 loss. Adam Dunn had three of those walks and finished the series with a .300 average, .462 on-base percentage, a homer and five RBIs. The Nationals forced Florida closer Matt Lindstrom to throw 32 pitches in the ninth inning of Wednesday's game and might have tied it up had Brett Carroll not made a diving catch of Austin Kearns' liner.
Nick Johnson also went 3-for-4 Tuesday, and Kearns drove in four runs in the series. The return of both of those players from injury, plus the signing of Dunn, has Acta believing that the Nationals offense won't have this much trouble winning games.
"Just having Dunn and having Nick in the lineup will make a pitcher work hard," Acta said. "Kearns is healthy, and we have some professional hitters now. Our lineup is deeper now. I like the way we swung the bat this whole series. We just got outpitched."
