If the Washington Nationals go on to win the National League East by a substantial margin and make a sustained October run, there will be a special place in their hearts, minds and the team highlight video for the night of April 28 in Atlanta.

The Nationals were in the middle of a six-game losing streak and had fallen behind the Braves 9-2 when they mounted a comeback that rescued them from their April malaise. Dan Uggla's three-run homer off Jason Grilli gave them a 13-12 victory, and they proceeded to reel off six wins in eight games to climb within two games of .500.

The knee-jerk fatalism surrounding the Nationals in April has dissipated. The "reset" button has been hit, and until the next crisis, all is right with the world.

"I don't know if you could call it a turning point," said closer Drew Storen. "You can't overdramatize it and assume it will all be good and we can just throw our gloves out and go from there. But I think that game helped create an identity for us. We have new guys in here, and it helped create a camaraderie. Call it a turning point or whatever you want. But it was a defining victory."

There's never a shortage of psychoanalysis surrounding the Nationals, whose two division titles, .576 winning percentage and two October flameouts since 2012 have produced an identity that isn't necessarily to their liking.

Jayson Werth, who began the season on the disabled list, has struggled to find his stroke as he's batting .176 with no home runs in 19 games. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

It's not only a product of golden boys/publicity magnets Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg being on the roster. Until the Nationals ride in a parade -- or win a postseason series -- they'll have to live with the periodic rehashing of Operation Shutdown with Strasburg in 2012, or four months of uninspired play and a playoff-free season in 2013. The ultimate indignity came last fall, when San Francisco pitcher Tim Hudson questioned the Nationals' collective manhood before the Giants eliminated Washington in the division series.

Like it or not, this is the narrative the Nationals have crafted and the burden they carry. And judging from the eye rolls and blunt responses among some Washington players, it's a topic they're tired of addressing.

"It's the same stuff every year," said outfielder Jayson Werth. "There's this media roller coaster that says, 'You guys are supposed to win.' Or, 'You guys suck.' I understand people have content to fill, but I'm just not going to enter into that forum.

"In September, whose side will the [media] be on when we've won 100 games? Our track record might show that we're not the best team in April, but I don't think anyone gets judged on April at the end of the season. I couldn't care less about talking about it, hearing about it or reading about it. Until somebody tells me it's time to go home, I'm not going home."

Some early stumbles

Some analysts projected the Nationals as MLB's best bet to win 100 games since the 2011 Phillies because of a rotation that includes Max Scherzer, Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez and Doug Fister, and that group has recently gone on a mini-roll befitting the hype. Since the Uggla home run game, Washington's five starters are 4-2 with a 1.90 ERA, 42 strikeouts and seven walks in 42 2/3 innings. That's dominance, in a limited sample size.

But the Nationals are still two games below .500 and working through some obstacles on their joyride to invincibility. The biggest, obviously, is health. Anthony Rendon, who led the NL with 111 runs scored and ranked fifth in the majors with a 6.5 WAR last season, is still rehabbing from a knee injury, and now his comeback has been stalled by a strained oblique. Denard Span and Rendon have combined for 55 at-bats this season, and the Nationals expect the offense to be more productive and efficient when those two are back making things happen at the top of the order.

Nevertheless, some early caution flags suggest the Nats might not be the triple-digit-win juggernaut they were cracked up to be.

• The Nationals rank 26th among the 30 MLB teams with a defensive runs saved of minus-14, according to Baseball Info Solutions, and they've allowed a major league-high 25 unearned runs this season. It doesn't help that several Nats are playing out of position. They have a career shortstop (Yunel Escobar) playing third and a career third baseman (Ryan Zimmerman) still acclimating to first. In addition, Harper has moved to right field and Werth has shifted from right to left. And shortstop Ian Desmond committed eight errors in his first 12 games before finally getting a grip on things.

• Washington ranks sixth in the NL with 112 runs scored, but 34 of those came in a three-game barrage last week. The Nationals have a total of three stolen bases in 10 attempts this season, and they've posted the second-highest strikeout total in the NL behind the young, impatient, free-swinging Chicago Cubs. They have contact issues, run-manufacturing issues and situational-hitting issues -- as evidenced by their .681 OPS with runners in scoring position (10th best in the league).

Century clubbers The Washington Nationals, who were labeled a potential 100-win team this season, put themselves in an early hole with a 10-13 April. But as the 13 teams with 100 wins this century have shown, a slow start doesn't necessarily determine how a team finishes. Team Win total April record 2001 Athletics 102 8-17 2001 Mariners 116 20-5 2002 Braves 101 12-15 2002 Yankees 103 17-10 2002 Athletics 103 15-11 2003 Giants 100 19-7 2003 Braves 101 17-10 2003 Yankees 101 21-6 2004 Yankees 101 12-11 2004 Cardinals 105 12-11 2005 Cardinals 100 15-7 2008 Angels 100 18-11 2009 Yankees 103 12-10 2011 Phillies 102 18-8 Source: Baseball-reference.com

• Tyler Clippard is gone and the dynamic at the back end of the bullpen has changed. Although Blake Treinen and Aaron Barrett have the stuff to be impact contributors in the late innings, they're still relatively new to pitching in high-leverage situations. Storen will ultimately have to get past his 8.44 postseason ERA, and the Nationals expect veteran Casey Janssen to bring added stability to the pen when he returns from a shoulder injury later this month.

"The only real concern I would have is overall depth reaching down into Double-A and Triple-A," an NL front office man said in an email. "They are pretty thin in most areas. Outside of that, I think there are still some questions about whether they collectively have a killer instinct as a team [even though they have a bunch of good makeup guys].

"The pen isn't deep, but they have enough quality at the end that it is still a strength. The offense has been bad, but there are too many good hitters for them to struggle for the whole year. Overall, they remain pretty good. I don't think anyone expected them to play like they did in April forever. Maybe they aren't going to dominate the world, but they are a good, complete team."

Wearing a "bull's-eye"

Are "good and complete" enough for a team confronted with the economic realities that typically produce a sense of urgency? Desmond, Span, Zimmermann and Fister are eligible for free agency in November, and they're trying to contribute to the team dynamic with the knowledge that their numbers could make or cost them tens of millions of dollars on the open market. Some players handle that balancing act more deftly than other players do.

Team expectations can be more or less stifling depending on the clubhouse makeup. Some scouts who were dubious about the Seattle Mariners in spring training observed that life changes for teams once they're supposed to be good. In Washington, they've been dealing with that scenario for a while now.

"We're responsible for it," Desmond said, "because what we've done in the past has put us in this position. Some teams say, 'We like the underdog role.' But come on -- nobody wants to be overlooked. I would much rather be in a position where people think we're going to be good than bad. Expectations are good. They challenge you and push you to be better."

Glowing expectations also raise a team's profile. Washington pitching coach Steve McCatty knows through experience that opposing lineups would peruse the scouting reports more thoroughly and gear up for a Washington rotation that's been anointed as potentially the best since Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt were a quartet in Philadelphia.

"Everybody brings their A-games against us," McCatty said. "They bust their butts to beat us. I remember a few years ago when we played Philadelphia. We knew they would wax us, but guys would say, 'We've got to pick it up,' and we kept doing that. Hitters like facing quality pitchers because it's a test for them. Guys pick it up a little more against Max or Stras or Jordan or Dougie and Gio. These guys are playing with a bull's-eye on their backs, but we wouldn't want it any other way."

Amid the Nationals' early travails, more than one scout has observed that they look uptight or lacking in focus and don't appear to be having much fun on the field. "Something is missing,'' said an NL talent evaluator. Manager Matt Williams projects an air of hyper-intensity on the bench. But Werth, a veteran of 53 postseason games covering 12 October series, insists that outward impressions don't reflect the more relaxed dynamic in the Washington clubhouse.

"We have a lot of stuff going on internally that a lot of places don't have going on," Werth said. "I've played on a lot of good teams, and the ability to be loose and have fun and enjoy your time together is important. We were about ready to lose seven games in a row and we were down 9-2, and at no point in our dugout would you know that. This team has little intangibles that other teams don't. To sit here and carp on the negatives of April is asinine."

Uggla's home run against the Braves helped flip the early narrative and send it hurtling in a more positive direction. And if the Nationals make the playoffs with 93 wins instead of 101, will anyone really care?

Over the next five months, the Nationals can look forward to being sliced, diced and dissected, hailed for their talent, critiqued for their warts and questioned for their resiliency and toughness. That's a product of their history and symptomatic of life as a perceived baseball juggernaut. Fair or not, they better get used to it.