For all his gaudy strikeout numbers, Stephen Strasburg may one day be best known for having Babe Ruth and a billy goat for company.
The highly touted pitcher is a central part of the Washington Nationals' long-term plans, to the point where the team was willing to shut him down in the midst of a potential championship season. Benching Strasburg in his first season back from Tommy John surgery with Washington at the top of the National League presaged a swift fall.
The Nationals crashed out in the 2012 NL Divisional Series to the fifth-seeded St Louis Cardinals. Their hubris was further highlighted by a 2013 season the entire organisation deemed “World Series or bust”, but ultimately ended without a post-season berth.
If Washington was humbled by just scraping to an above-.500 record, that humility has not improved their fortunes. In a span of just 10 games, Wilson Ramos, Doug Fister, Jordan Zimmermann, Ryan Zimmerman (twice), Scott Hairston, Denard Span and Jeff Kobernus have landed on the injured list. Third baseman Zimmerman, a key part of the offence with Bryce Harper struggling, is out four to six weeks with a fractured thumb.
On top of all that, Washington still cannot overcome their NL East rivals, the Atlanta Braves, who have beaten the Nationals four out of five games this year and are a major hurdle in the play-off race.
If this pattern of futility and bad luck keeps up, talk of curses in baseball may no longer be limited to the era of sepia-tinted footage.
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