The Most Telling Statistic of All

This season, the Nats have been outscored in the sixth inning a combined 28-3. That averages out to be 1.27 runs per sixth inning against the Nationals. The Nats' second worst inning for runs against: the first, with 15 total, for an average of .68 runs.

The Nats' best innings for fewest runs against are the second and fourth, giving up only 7 runs in each of those innings for an average of .32 runs.

Nats pitchers have given up 9, 11 and 9 runs in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings, averages of .41, .50 and .63 (7 fewer innnings pitched due to poor road record).

By contrast, care to guess the Nats' most productive innings as hitters before I tell you? Go ahead.

The 9th inning is the Nats most prodcutive inning, scoring 16 runs, an average of .77 runs per 9th inning. Next is the first, with 15 runs (.68) and 4th with 12 runs (.55).

Their least productive? Yup, you guessed it. The 6th, with those 3 lonesome runs, two of which were scored in one game (BONUS POINTS for the first person to tell me which game the Nats "exploded" for two runs in the sixth).