Whatever anyone's opinion of Morse (and I am NOT saying there isn't a valid argument for the concerns "Vegas" voiced about Morse earlier in the season) I think this season has shown that Morse is a lot smarter hitter than he gets credit for. Maybe this is because as a "late bloomer" he had a lot of time to learn.

It seemed to me when he first came back he thought he was a little more ready than he was - hence some poor numbers and 0fer nights. But what he did then was impressive.

Healthy, injured or six feet under Morse is a guy who knows how to hit home runs. I think when he realized his timing wasn't quite back yet he put away that HR stroke and concentrated on that nice level swing that generates singles and doubles. He did that for the past few weeks and the team benefited a lot more than if he'd been making fly ball outs trying for homers.

Past week or so the comfort level has started to come back and he's broken out the power swing. That shows him to be both a smart hitter and one who put the good of the team over personal stats.

And WOW! That HR last night! I love those shots where the outfielders just make a token trot towards the fence cos they know as soon as the Morse touches it off its leaving the park.

Gotta love the Beast! (and I'm sure Detwiler does :)

I don't remember too many right hand hitters who hit most of their home runs to right center. Tremendous power to right center.
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Let's go Nationals!

4SURE!

And they're bombs, they're not "long doubles" that just clear the fence.

Mores eis obviously a guy who needs 100-150 ABS (real ABS) to get going

Couldn't agree with you more. The first few weeks of June were, for Morse, his Spring Training. I wasn't at all surprised to see him struggling a bit as a result. But I also knew he'd get it together, as he is now doing.

Very reminiscent of last year when he struggled in April thru mid-May, only to turn it on and never look back.

We were hurt today, not only by the pitching, but by Harper and Zimm with no hits. Morse's 2 singles could have resulted in RBIs, had those two managed to get some hits.

Harper seems to really be struggling a bit at the plate. I think it's a combination of pitchers starting to figure him out and him trying too hard with every at-bat. He needs to do what Morse did, relax and go after the singles and doubles, instead of swinging for the fence every time.

>>"Very reminiscent of last year when he struggled in April thru mid-May, only to turn it on and never look back."

I agree that these last 4 weeks have essensially been Morse's training camp, but it's actually quite different from last year because he absolutely demolished the Grapefruit League in 2011. He had his stroke down very early, right from the start of March, it wasn't until the last few games in March and then the start of the regular season that he said he let the thought of being a full-time player for the first time get to him and he put extra pressure on himself rather than doing what got him to that point. It wasn't until he had lost the starting LF job to Laynce Nix when he had time to think about it and working with Eckstein who Morse credited with getting his head back in the right place that he was ready to start pounding the ball again, and it just happened that he got his chance to start again when LaRoche gave-up trying to play injured and went under the knife.

The difference between last year's training camp in March, and this year's camp (for him) in June is that last year he came into camp healthy, whereas this year he was coming-off the Lat injury that he had already re-injured once when he was only one or two more rehab games away from being re-called in early April. That has to make someone nervous about 'letting it go'.

I realize the sample is skewed by the Colorado episode but it sure seems like we've gone from averaging 2-3 runs a game to average 4-5 as Morse, Zimm and, to an extent, Espinosa, have gotten with the program.

The reemergence of Zimm and Morse is huge for this team.

We been scoring better in Hotlanta too (18 in 3 games isn't the 35 we scored in 4 in Denver, but its a step up from out season average)