The road warriors do it again

Now that's the way you perform on a road trip. Over the last seven days, the Nationals played seven games away from home. They won six of the seven, including yesterday's dramatic comeback victory over the Brewers. The Braves played well over the weekend, sweeping the Phillies in a three-game set by a combined score of 14-4. But despite Atlanta's strong play of late, they still trail the Nats by four games in the National League East. The Phillies, on the other hand, now find themselves 12 games under .500 and 16 1/2 games back of the Nats in the division. You can stick a fork in 'em. There will be no magical comeback within the division. The Phils are done. Overall this season, the Nationals have put up a record of 33-21 away from home. That's good for a .611 road winning percentage, the top mark in the majors. They've won eight of their last 11 away from home, 12 of 17 and 19 of 27. They're now 11-4-2 in road series this season. The Nats are thrilled to come home this week to see their families and play in front of their home crowd. As well as they've played on the road, it's not like they haven't also performed well in their home ballpark. But is there any way we can convince these guys they're still away from the nation's capital even when they're playing at Nats Park? Put 'em up in a hotel. Make them take taxis to the park. Something must be done here. Yesterday, the Nationals trailed by four runs after seven innings. They scored four runs in the eighth to tie the game. They then trailed by two runs entering the ninth. They scored twice to knot things up again and jumped on top in the 11th, marking their first lead since the top of the first inning. Not many teams win that game away from home. The Nationals aren't most road ball clubs. We're starting to learn that as this season gets deeper.