Washington Nationals Player of the Week: Stephen Strasburg

At the end of every week, we award ‘Player of the Week’ honors to one player who stood out for the Washington Nationals over the last week. For the week of May 16-22, our Player of the Week is Stephen Strasburg.

While Stephen Strasburg wasn’t perfect last week and only had one start, he improved his record to 7-0. The right-hander has been the Washington Nationals’ most reliable starter this season and is arguably performing at the highest level we’ve ever seen from him on the mound.

In Strasburg’s lone start last week, the right-hander allowed one run on six hits while striking out 10 batters over six innings. It was an important game against the Mets, and Strasburg delivered — helping lead the Nationals to a 9-1 win.

More from District on Deck

With the victory, Strasburg now leads all Nationals starters in wins and WHIP, and is second to Max Scherzer (last week’s Player of the Week) in strikeouts and innings pitched.

While Strasburg takes home our Player of the Week honors, there are a few other players who also deserve recognition for their strong weeks: Jayson Werth, Anthony Rendon and Ben Revere.

All three players struggled mightily to start the season and none of them are quite where they would like to be as we approach the quarter-mark of the 2016 campaign. But all three have stepped up their game of late, and played key roles in the Nationals’ series victories over the Mets and Marlins last week.

Werth played well in the Mets series and was especially important in Game 2, when he went 2-for-2 and scored three runs to help lead the Nationals to a 7-1 win. Werth showed last week that his early season slump is a thing of the past, posting a .333 batting average over his last seven games.

Rendon has been even better over the last week, batting .458 with seven RBIs over his last seven games. He went 6-for-10 with four RBIs during the series against the Mets, and he too appears to have put his early struggles behind him.

One player who the Nationals need to get going is leadoff hitter Ben Revere, who has struggled mightily from the leadoff spot after spending the first month of the season on the disabled list. Fortunately, Revere showed signs of improvement last week. He went 2-for-5 with two RBIs in the team’s Game 3 win over the Mets, and he went 3-for-5 with two RBIs in yesterday’s win over the Marlins.

Next: Washington Nationals vs. Mets Series Preview (5/23-5/25)

For the Nationals to keep their momentum going in the coming days and weeks, they’ll need all three of these players and the rest of the lineup to stay productive. With the continued dominance of Strasburg and Max Scherzer at the top of the rotation, the Nationals could get hot in a hurry if the offense finally clicks and finds some consistency.

Home/Nationals News