Morning coffee: major and minor league Nats notes

It has been a very good start to May for high Single-A Potomac third baseman Drew Ward. He has gone 8-for-29 (.276) with two homers and five RBIs. He has walked seven times and struck out only seven times. The 20-year-old from Leedey, Okla., has hit .278 overall with a .800 OPS, totaling 27 hits including eight doubles.

Second baseman Christopher Bostick had a six-game hit streak snapped last night. But he had a game-winning hit last week in a 4-3 win over Frederick and has eight stolen bases on the season.

* With Monday's 11-1 crushing of Arizona and the Mets' 4-3 loss to the Cubs, the Nationals are now only 2 1/2 games out of first place in the National League East. Since April 27, when the Nats were 7-13, the Mets have gone 5-7 and the Nats 11-2. The Nationals were eight games back of the lead on that Monday.

Since last Tuesday's loss to the Marlins, the Nationals have scored 40 runs and won five straight. They have won 11 of their last 13 games. With a win tonight, they will even their record at 9-9 on the road. They are 8-2 so far in May. They are 6-2 in blowout games (decided by five or more runs). Monday was the fourth time this season they have scored 10 or more runs in a game.

* Third baseman Yunel Escobar's batting average is .342. That is two Mondays in a row that Escobar has gone 5-for-5 in a game. He is 16-for-39 (.410) in May with 16 singles. His on-base percentage is .429 for the month and .388 for the season. He is a huge part of the offense to get on base in front of Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman. Harper won NL Player of the Week honors, but Escobar had to be considered on that list. He could be in the running for this week's honor. He returned Monday after having to leave Sunday's game in the fourth inning with a stomach bug.

* Harper has hit safely in five straight games, raising his average from .245 to .298. He has six homers and 14 RBIs in May. That is in a span of 37 at-bats. His May OPS is a ridiculous 1.256. His overall OPS is 1.074. He has 28 walks and 27 runs on the season.

* Catcher Wilson Ramos is enjoying a career-best 14-game hitting streak. Ramos is batting .433 in May, with 13 hits, four of those doubles, and five RBIs. His on-base percentage is .469 and his OPS is 1.035 in May.

Zimmerman has at least a hit in five straight games and seven total in that span, hitting .286 since the beginning of May. He has two doubles, two homers and 10 RBIs already in the first 10 games of the month.

* Center fielder Denard Span's leadoff homer Monday was his first homer ever against Arizona. It was also his eighth homer ever in the first inning. He has hit 33 of his 35 homers from the leadoff spot. It was also the seventh leadoff homer of his career.