Rachel Levitin: Nats' depth has come in handy

The Nationals are 3 1/2 games up over the New York Mets in the National League East after their 6-1 victory over the Braves in Atlanta on Tuesday night. They've won nine of their last 10 games, have battled through injuries to realign their starting rotation and have witnessed several hitting hot streaks for various players up and down the lineup.

Despite a little bit of struggle to get back to first place within their division and stay atop the baseball standings as one of the teams with the most wins so far, the Nats bench and the depth they've provided in the wake starters being placed on the disabled list is a big part of the reason why this team isn't falling to the bottom of the NL East pile.

Guys like Clint Robinson, Michael A. Taylor, Tyler Moore and Danny Espinosa - who's found himself starting much of this season when that wasn't necessarily the plan for Washington going into the spring - are making the most of the opportunities presented to them. The Nationals bench players are getting a good amount of playing time and are keeping the Nats afloat and on top whether they're starting in place of Ryan Zimmerman, Jayson Werth, Bryce Harper or Anthony Rendon, or coming fresh off the bench as needed for a sporadic pinch-hit or pinch-running situation,

Injuries are sustained in athletics daily. Baseball is no exception. It's what all teams do when those injuries occur that writes their story for the season. And so far, the Nats are doing all they can with all the man power they can cobble together to keep Washington in first place heading into the All-Star Break in a couple of weeks.

Rachel Levitin blogs about the Nationals for District Sports Page. Follow her on Twitter: @RHLevitin. She will be sharing her observations about baseball in the nation's capital as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.