Nats should be worried about Sean Burnett’s recent struggles

After the Washington Nationals lost another game in the late innings yesterday, reliever Sean Burnett told reporters “I’m just not executing when I need to.” That’s called a major understatement. He has hit an elongated rough patch after such a strong start to the year. Burnett was so reliable for the Nats in the final three innings at the beginning of 2011, but his struggles are worrying fans of the D.C. squad. The reason why the Nats have been playing better baseball than expected was because of the effective bullpen. Burnett, along with Tyler Clippard, and Drew Storen all had strong starts to the year and shortened the game to six innings. Fatigue could be a factor, but it doesn’t help that manager Jim Riggleman doesn’t have enough faith in the other guys sitting with them. The game yesterday against the Giants, he worried too much about the baserunners he allowed and fell in love with his breaking ball. The fastball command hasn’t been there and gets to t...