Dusty Baker encouraged by Nats' handling of losses

He has seen his team get off to a rousing start, taking advantage of some weak April competition. And he has seen his team battle its way through a much tougher May, with nearly every opponent presenting a significant challenge.

The end result of all that for Dusty Baker's Nationals? A 28-19 record entering tonight's series opener against the Cardinals and a 1/2-game lead over the Mets in the NL East.

And a recognition that there's still plenty of room for improvement.

"We've got work to do," Baker said. "I'm glad to this point that we've been healthy, which is what I wanted to take out of this. And our guys are going to get better. My goal in the past with different teams was to play .500 baseball in April and May and then, boom, you start taking off in June and July. So to me, we're ahead of that pace already."

The Nationals have reached this point despite an inconsistent lineup that rarely has had more than three regulars clicking at the same time. Of the eight players starting tonight, only Wilson Ramos owns a batting average better than .249. (Daniel Murphy, who leads the league with a .394 average, has a rare night off.)

They have received elite performances from a pitching staff that ranks second in the majors with a 2.86 ERA. And the two units that make up that staff have been equally elite; both the rotation and bullpen rank second in ERA.

The Nationals' +51 run differential ranks fourth in the majors and actually suggests their record should be slightly better than it is. Baker concurs, pointing to a handful of games that were lost late in recent weeks.

"We lost some tough games during that stretch," the manager said. "We could've fared better, if the ball bounced one way or the next. I keep looking back at the four games we lost in Chicago (in which the winning run scored in the seventh inning or later three times). If we just split with those guys, we'd be at 30 victories already. That's still eating at my stomach, to tell you the truth."

Players have taken some of those close losses hard, with the postgame clubhouse vibe something you might expect after a key game in September or later. Baker has noticed that, and views it as an encouraging sign.

"This team is very resilient and unaffected by tough losses or consecutive losses," he said. "Because after the game ... you can hear a church mouse run across the floor of our clubhouse. And then the next day, you would know nothing ever happened. That's a sign of some pros."

That attitude hasn't been typical for Baker during his various managerial stints over the last two decades, emphasizing the quality of the group he inherited this season.

"Yeah, I gotta come in sometimes and say: 'Turn the music up!' or 'It's not a morgue in here!' But this was a good team before I got here," Baker said. "And other teams I inherited were next-to-last-place teams. So therefore I had to come in and change the culture and the mindset, because if you lose two or three in a row or a tough game, they're used to losing, saying: 'Here we go again.' And I'm like: 'Oh no, we're not gonna go again.' It was a little bit different culture when I got here."