Steve Mears: Nationals finding success with pinch-hitters

The 2016 Nationals bench is winning games singlehandedly by singular swings of the bat. The most memorable singular swing by a bench player is always the one freshest in your mind, which has to be last night's walk-off pinch-hit home run from Clint Robinson.

Then you start to think about some of the others, like Chris Heisey in extra innings with the 16th-inning walk-off HR on April 24 which was the first walk-off in Heisey's career. Now rewind back further to the second game of the season when Matt den Dekker was called up to take the spot vacated by Ben Revere when he was placed on the DL.

Den Dekker arrived mid-game in Atlanta, took some hacks in the cage, and delivered on a two-run double off the outfield wall that scored two runs as the game-winning RBIs. The Goon Squad II now ranks second in the majors with four pinch-hit home runs. Robinson has the one from last night, Heisey has two, and Bryce Harper has one.

The Nats are now second in the National League in pinch-hitting OPS at .853. Joe Ross can be an honorary member of the Goon Squad II as he is batting 1.000 as a Nats pinch-hitter this year (1-1). The only struggling member is Stephen Drew, who is 0-7 with three strikeouts. Today the bench is exactly like it was on opening day with Jose Lobaton, Robinson, Michael Taylor, Drew, and Heisey. Most benches will go through some changes throughout the season as there is an evolution of the five-man bench, generally.

The next change could be coming if the Nationals promote Trea Turner. It would mean someone would need to leave the roster and it is anyone's guess who that could be. It was a week and a half ago after the April 30 game where Robinson was batting just .053 with a .143 OPB and a .195 OPS. Robinson had one hit all season and the very next day he got a start and hit a home run in St. Louis. Since May 1, Robinson is 4-for-8 with two home runs. How quickly things change. Drew needs to turn around his season dramatically also, and that is what the great benches are all about: the dramatics, and the flair for the extraordinary.

Steve Mears blogs about the Nationals for Talk Nats. Follow the blog on Twitter: @TalkNats2. His thoughts on the Nationals will appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.