Rotation lifting up Nationals

The first-place Nationals are for real. So long as their rotation is for real. So far, it is. Four starters have ERAS under 2.00: Stephen Strasburg (1.12), Jordan Zimmerman (1.33), Gio Gonzalez (1.52) and Ross Detwiler (1.64).

Until Wednesday night, when San Diego’s Orlando Hudson homered off Zimmerman, the rotation had tossed 26 straight scoreless innings. The next night, the fifth guy, Edwin Jackson, worked 62⁄ scoreless innings.

It came during a stretch in which starters surrendered runs in just four of 57 innings. Andre Ethier’s homer on Friday was just the fourth Nationals starters have yielded this season. Eight times, they have had scoreless stints.

The numbers go on and on, a lot of unprecedented stuff. Suffice it to say no Washington team has had a quicker start, and baseball in our capital is in its 79th season: 1901-60 Senators, 1961-71 expansion Senators, 2005-present Nationals. A 14-5 record after 19 games was reached just once previously, in 1932.

It’s the pitching, and Gonzalez is having a blast after getting dealt from Oakland in the deal that sent Tommy Milone, Brad Peacock, Derek Norris and A.J. Cole to the A’s. Gonzalez has been efficient through four starts, averaging 2.7 walks per nine innings compared with 4.1 last season. His WHIP is 0.845, and last year’s was 1.317.

As a result, the lefty has thrown fewer than 100 pitches in all four of his starts. Last year, he was below 100 five times in 32 starts. His career record when walking two or fewer batters is 25-10, while it’s 14-15 with three or four walks and 1-7 with five or more walks.

Most important to the Nationals: They’ve won all four of his starts, and that’s a theme in Washington.