Patrick Corbin and the Nationals coast past the Pirates for their third straight win

In the meantime, they’ve handled the Pirates as they should. But like everything this season — and in baseball writ large — that wasn’t guaranteed. For most of the past 2½ months, the Nationals have been on the other end of “Team A should coast against Team B because on paper Team A is better.” You become Team B when, for weeks, the middle of the order is a yawning hole. It doesn’t help when Stephen Strasburg goes on the injured list (twice), then is joined by Will Harris, Daniel Hudson, Austin Voth and Scherzer, who landed there Tuesday with groin inflammation. It doesn’t help when the luck won’t change.