Photo by Mylar Bono.

Including the just-completed homestand, these two weeks may be as soft as it gets for the rest of the Nationals’ season. The Braves have not been a good road team at all this year, and the Phillies were without Shane Victorino, Chase Utley, and anything resembling Ryan Howard, even before he sprained his ankle on Sunday. Chalk it up to fortunate timing if you will, but the Nats convincingly took both series (and without one Mr. Strasburg, no less). They’re getting it done with good starting pitching, aggressive baserunning, and timely hitting, all of which were mostly foreign concepts around Nationals Park until recently.

On Friday, the Phillies’ eight-game win streak came to a crashing halt, as the Nats got to Roy Oswalt early and often in his first outing for the new team. Saturday’s game wasn’t nearly as comfortable, with Drew Storen giving up a run in the top of the ninth to give the Phillies the lead. Luckily, vintage Brad Lidge showed up to close the game — once Michael Morse and Adam Kennedy reached base, the patented Ryan Zimmerman walkoff was almost inevitable. Sunday didn’t go quite as well, as Joel Peralta couldn’t hold the runners he inherited from Miguel Batista in the seventh and Collin Balester, in his third appearance of the year, allowed the deciding runs in the top of the eleventh. All things considered, though, a last-place team should be extremely happy with a 4-2 homestand against the first- and second-place teams in the division.