This is exactly the start to the 2013 Major League Baseball season the Nationals did NOT want to see.

Make no mistake, after a little more than one-tenth of a season, a record of 10-9 is no reason to hit the panic button and start looking for trade partners.

Heck, even a record of 3-7 over their last 10 games is no real reason to start jumping at shadows.

What doubt might be starting to creep up on people, though, tickling the backs of their necks and sending clammy little shivers down their spines, centers on the sense that the weight of expectations might be getting to this group of guys everybody considered overachievers just seven or eight months ago.

Just last October, the Nationals finished with baseball's best regular season record. Their 98 wins were a franchise record, blew the cover off baseball's best-kept secret and, most importantly, ratcheted up excitement for the 2013 season.

People who just assumed the team really was named "Nationals" suddenly hopped on the bandwagon and began asking when World Series tickets were going on sale.

A certain national sports publication, well known for jinxing athletes and teams for generations, went out of its way to hex not only the Nationals, picking them as their preseason favorite to win it all this year, but also pointing its bad juju finger at young Stephen Strasburg, one season after his tantalizing, innings-limited 2012 campaign.

Since then, the Nats have gone 8-1 against the Miami Marlins and Chicago White Sox, two last place teams with every expectation to be non-contenders this year. Against the rest of their opponents? This early in the season the math is pretty easy: 2-8.

And only one of those two remaining wins came against a team in their own division, the Mets, nobody's early season pick for much of anything except, maybe, for team most likely to pin its hopes on 2014 and beyond.

(The other win came against the Cincinnati Reds in a 7-6 nailbiter, one night after the Reds had beaten the Nats every way imaginable in a 15-0 rout that brought to mind nothing less than Hannibal and the Battle of Cannae.)

Strasburg, meanwhile, is sitting on a 1-3 record that looks much worse than it is. The big righty again leads the team in strikeouts, has a sub-3.00 ERA and is holding opponents to a .227 batting average.

The problem for Strasburg, and for the Nats as a whole, is that which, while certainly not putrid, is by no means pretty.

Last year's 98-win squad batted .261 for the regular season, good enough for 9th in the majors.

This year's?

.240. Good enough to be tied for 22nd.

Last year's squad also scored the 10th most runs in baseball.

To date, this year's is ranked 18th.

Now, any Major League manager worth his salt (and Nats' skipper Davey Johnson is worth his salt, my salt, your salt, and anybody else's you want to bring to the party) will tell you they're much more comfortable waiting for bats to wake up than for pitching. You can go a long way with great arms and mediocre bats.

But even with vets like Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche this is still a young team that could too easily begin to feel the weight of those pre-season assumptions pushing down a bit and begin to tighten up, begin to press.

Nobody's saying that's what's going to happen, and nobody's ready to abandon ship just yet. There's no better manager for this team or in this league than Davey Johnson. He'll do what it takes.

But if this team is still scuffling come June, people may be less concerned with Natitude, and more concerned with Slackitude.

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Left for dead not so long ago, the Caps have caught fire and are steaming toward another Southeast Division championship. Which is a good thing because, as of now, it doesn't look like any other Southeast Division team is going to even sniff the playoffs.

Ovi and co. seem to be playing their best hockey at the right time of the season, for once. Here's hoping they can keep it up when it counts.

The NBA playoffs are under way, and you shouldn't feel bad if you feel like taking a nap. Watching who comes out of the west should be the most compelling reason to watch for the foreseeable future as LeBron James and the Spurs seem poised to walk away again with another Eastern Conference crown. Maybe there'll be a speed-bump or two along the way, but I doubt it.

And to the brothers Tsarnaev who, for reasons still unknown, took it upon themselves to spread terror and suffering amongst the people of one of America's oldest and strongest cities, you lose. Your actions, misguided and horrifying as they may have been, have served only to bring us all closer together, first in grief, next in anger, and lastly in resolve. You and yours will never win. Never.

Alex can be reached at cuda24@yahoo.com