WASHINGTON -- Nationals center fielder Denard Span is comfortable in his own skin. He's not merely comfortable at the plate, where he has 16 hits in his last 49 at-bats (.410) over a nine-game stretch.
Span is in line to enter free agency after the season, and he is willing to help fellow Nats outfielder Michael Taylor at all costs. Taylor, it turns out, is expected to take Span's job next year, but that doesn't matter to the 31-year-old, who remembers when Torii Hunter took him under his wing and showed him the ropes when Span was a rookie coming up with the Twins.