When the Nationals look back on their season — when they try to identify when it all began to turn — the natural tendency will be to pinpoint May 24, the day Washington rallied to take a 12-10 slugfest with the Miami Marlins.
Since that Friday night explosion, they’ve won 28 of their last 39 games for a league-leading winning percentage of .717.
But the seeds of their breathtaking turnaround — the Nationals are looking to become just the second team in the wild card era to start at least 19-31 and still make the playoffs — were planted earlier.