(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

One of the joys for Nationals fans in the early stages of the 2012 baseball season, and the main reason why the team sits atop the National League East, is the almost nightly outstanding performances by the starting pitchers.

And one of the reasons the rotation of Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman, Edwin Jackson, Gio Gonzalez and Ross Detweiler is leading Major League Baseball with a 1.86 earned run average: They all throw the ball pretty damn hard.

The Post’s Adam Kilgore notes that according to the baseball statistics database FanGraphs.com, the five pitchers’ collective average fastball speed is a blistering 93.4 miles per hour, the highest figure ever recorded since the website started keeping such data in 2002.

In addition to making making opposing batters look bad, the Nationals pitchers have also cost catcher Wilson Ramos sensation in his left index finger, which has taken the punishing impact of the 400 fastballs he’s ordered up so far this season.

Of course, the pitchers themselves are playing it down. “We all have a unique character on the mound,” Gonzalez told Kilgore. “Everyone has their own style of pitching.”

But a fastball-first attack is the centerpiece of the forumla, Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo told Kilgore:

“It does go along with my philosophy,” said. “The radar readings, per se, there’s no philosophy there. But power arms with swing-and-miss stuff, that’s how you build strong rotations. Big, physical pitchers with stuff and command. That was always part of our plan.”

Strasburg, in last night’s 6-3 win over the Houston Astros, topped out at 98 miles per hour.