Back at it

Boy, that break seemed to go quickly.

Four days off in the middle of the season is always welcome. Heck, I know I needed it, and all I do is put on a suit and talk about baseball on television and do some writing for this here Web site.

I can't imagine how needed the break was for the players who are going through all the physical rigors every day or the coaches who are putting in all the prep work and grinding it out with their guys in the clubhouse.

But now we're all back at it, ready to start the second half and watch the Nationals try and make a postseason push.

I've talked about the schedules that remain for both the Nationals and Braves, the two teams tied atop the National League East as we enter the second half. Nearly two-thirds of the Nats' remaining games will come against teams with sub-.500 records at the break, while the Braves have six fewer contests against teams with losing records.

I'll now take that even one step further for you - the Nats have the fifth-easiest remaining schedule in the National League, according to Stats Inc., while the Braves rank eighth among the 15 NL squads in strength of schedule the rest of the way out.

It ain't much of an advantage, but the Nats will take it.

As we get ready to start the second half, there are a handful of big-picture questions circling around this team.

Can the offense start to develop some consistency now that everyone is healthy, resulting in more multi-run innings and crooked numbers? The Nats are 41-3 when they score at least four runs, which is just a ridiculous stat. Four runs is not an incredibly difficult mark to reach, but when the Nats get there, they win. They just need to find a way to get there more often.

Can the bullpen keep up the tremendous work in the late innings, even as some of those arms start to get a little tired in the second half? The Nats have the third-best bullpen ERA in the majors to this point, but a number of Nats relievers have put in fairly heavy workloads already this season, both in terms of appearances and the number of times they've gotten hot in the bullpen. That caught up to a few guys down the stretch in 2012, and the Nats have to hope their relievers can stay relatively fresh as we get into September (and possibly October).

Can the defense stay hot? Through the first handful of weeks of the season, the Nats had the worst fielding percentage in the majors, and often had unearned runs factoring into their results. But of late, things have really turned in a positive direction. Since the start of June, the Nats have the best fielding percentage in the National League.

For today, the main question will be about Jordan Zimmermann, who was scheduled to throw a side session yesterday during a team workout at Nationals Park that was closed to the media. Zimmermann was diagnosed with a right biceps strain after he needed to leave last Friday's game against the Phillies, and the Nationals have said that they expect him to be able to avoid the disabled list and go on without needing to skip a start.

We'll see today how he came through yesterday's throwing session and whether that initial plan for Zimmermann is still what the Nats are looking at.