Rachel Levitin: Nationals still searching for rhythm and momentum

If spring training is the warm-up for the start of the season, I think it's safe to say April is the warm-up for the rest of baseball's marathon run from spring to fall. The Nationals are 2-6 to start their 2015 run and there have already been mumblings from various sources around Twitter and otherwise that have people begging the question: Is it time to start worrying?

Let's just put this out there now and put that to rest: No, it's not time to start worrying.

To be honest, I feel like this is a story that happens to at least a handful of teams every season. It's a baseball trope if you will. It's a narrative that gets pegged unto teams - much like the Nationals - that are coming off successful seasons and start slow.

It's not an ideal start for the Nationals in 2015. They've dropped games against the Phillies and Mets, and now to the Red Sox, too. But once the envisioned starting nine are healthy and take their positions, that's when the season's really going to start for the Nats.

With Anthony Rendon still down for the count, there's been ample opportunities to shine a light on the solid pickup made in acquiring Yunel Escobar over the offseason. Once Rendon is back at third and Escobar can move to being the daily second baseman, a consistent stream of communication within the middle infield can start solidifying itself and the defensive errors and miscues will decrease from that point onward.

Getting Denard Span back in the batting order and in center field should prove to be a nice sparkplug for a currently inconsistent offensive lineup. They're getting closer to that point, but they're just not there quite yet.

The goal here for Washington getting into a consistent rhythm - both defensively and offensively - and that's where the Nats are struggling at the moment. There's a lack of momentum.

So is it time to start worrying? Will the Nats ever find their momentum? Of course they will. It's only April. The real question is, when will the Nats find their momentum and how long will they be able to hold on and take advantage of that forward motion propelling them further up the win column?

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.