How the Nats are inching their way back into the race

What seemed impossible only 10 days ago suddenly looks significantly more plausible today. Yes, the Nationals still face an incredibly daunting challenge as they try to turn their season all the way around, but they're actually taking steps in the right direction (with some help from the rest of the division).

Winners of seven of their last nine, the Nats are finally starting to play a better brand of baseball and getting rewarded for it. And thanks to a suddenly freefalling Phillies club, the deficit in the National League East is shrinking.

Ten days ago, the Nationals trailed the Phillies by 10 games. Now, with Philadelphia having dropped five in a row out west, they only trail by 6 1/2 games.

Sure, the Nats remain in fourth place, still looking up not only at the Phillies but also the Braves and Mets. But that deficit is within shouting distance instead of cell-phone-only distance. And that can only serve as a morale boost to anyone who cares about Washington's baseball team.

The last thing the Nationals should be doing right now, of course, is paying daily attention to the standings. That can only make things worse.

Fortunately, they've given no indication they are consumed with such matters. They really do just focus on trying to win their next game before moving onto the next one.

They did that a lot during their just-completed 4-1 road trip to Atlanta and Cincinnati. And they'll need to continue to do that during the coming week-plus, which features an odd schedule.

The Nationals are back home, but only for two interleague games against the White Sox. Then it's right back to the road, with a four-game weekend series in San Diego followed by another two-game set against the same White Sox club next week, this time on the South Side of Chicago.

That's eight games against a couple of up-and-coming teams, though teams still on the fringes of contention for now as opposed to smack dab in the middle of a pennant race. There's an opportunity here for the Nats to keep the good vibes rolling.

After that comes a long homestand, one that could very well determine whether the Nationals are legitimately in the race or still stuck trying to play catch-up. There's a four-game series with the middling Diamondbacks, but then back-to-back home series with the Phillies and Braves. That's the critical stretch for this team.

The Nationals don't need to make up all of the ground they've lost by then. They simply need to keep playing well and keep chipping away at the teams ahead of them in the standings. Then they need to beat the Phillies and Braves and make their real move.

How do they do that? The same way they've been winning games for the last week and a half. They get great starting pitching (2.96 ERA, 1.161 WHIP the last nine games). They get sustained offense (6.6 runs, .859 OPS the last nine games). They get clean defense (five errors in the last eight games). And they get just enough effective relief to close out games (one run, six hits, three walks in their last 11 1/3 innings).

That's the formula for success for this team at this time. The Nationals have to score runs and they have to get elite starting pitching. Then they have to hope their two biggest problem areas (relief pitching, defense) hold on and secure wins.

If they keep doing that, the impossible dream of making up a 10-game deficit might just inch closer to reality by the time this key stretch of the season is complete.