The Nationals’ 2019 season is a plane nose-diving into a nuclear power plant. It’s a flaming cruise ship hitting an iceberg in the middle of a hurricane. It’s a man jumping out of a plane only to realize that he forgot a parachute who’s then hit by lightning. It’s a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Six weeks ago, that was my take on the Nationals, and it wasn’t entirely hyperbolic. After losing to the Mets on May 23 to complete a humiliating four-game sweep, Washington dropped to 19–31 on the season—the fourth-worst record in baseball.