Washington Nationals fan confidence up heading into NL Wild Card Game tonight

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Nationals fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

So, how confident are fans of the Washington Nationals heading into tonight’s NL Wild Card Game against the Milwaukee Brewers? There was a quick turnaround with the results of this week’s polling since the Nationals are one of the Wild Card teams this year. We’ll know a few hours from now how things work out, but going into the win-or-go-home matchup with the Brewers, Nats fans are apparently confident in the overall direction of the team...

That number jumped from 58% and 60% in the last two weeks, to 84% this week. You would not know it by reading things on the internet, and Twitter, specifically, but the voters in this week’s polling apparently believe that the Nationals might actually make something of their opportunity...

You might have noticed that this week’s card is annotated, with three important dates from the 2019 campaign.

We were asked to identify the three big moments and went with May 23rd, when the Nats were swept in four straight in New York and then started to turn things around after they’d reached rock bottom, September 3rd, when the Nationals rallied in a seven-run ninth and walked off on the same Mets, leading to a lot of folks starting to believe that this team did have something special going on, and September 24th, when the Nats clinched their WC spot, becoming just the 9th team in MLB history to fall 12 under .500 and end up making it to the postseason that year.

Are there bigger dates for the Nationals in 2019 in your mind? What would they be?

Also, what do you think about the reward for all the work the Nationals did coming down to a win-or-go-home game tonight? You get 93 wins, and you get a one-or-done shot to make it to the NLDS?

Mike Rizzo addressed that topic yesterday when the Nationals’ GM spoke to reporters about the Wild Card Game.

If you don’t want it all coming down to one game, “... play better during the season, win the division. That’s the way I think of it,” Rizzo said. “You’re rewarded for winning the division.”

Good point, Mike. Is it okay if we call you Mike?

Here’s the response to the national baseball question this week which asked about the Wild Card Game(s):

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