When the Miami Marlins won on each of the first seven days in May, it marked the majors’ second longest winning streak of the season at that point. Texas had won eight in a row in April. The Marlins’ streak slashed Washington’s lead over them from 6 games to 3 ½. A lot of good it did them.

The Marlins got as close as three percentage points to the Nationals – that was on June 4 – but since then their season has deteriorated into a disaster.

From June 4 through last Saturday, their 15-31 record has been the National League’s third worst (only a game and a half better than Colorado’s 13-32), and they have tumbled 14 games from the still-leading Nationals.

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Once upon a time, Washington was first in war, first in peace and last in the American League. These days Washington is first in the National League, and Davey Johnson is first in Washington.

Any manager who has a Washington baseball team in first place, whichever the league, has to be viewed in the nation’s capital as somebody special, more special than any officeholder or other politician.

“I’m enjoying the season,” Johnson said. “I’m enjoying the players.” But, he added in a long, wide-ranging telephone interview Friday, he doesn’t enjoy every aspect of his job and where he does it.

“It’s a pain in the neck flying into Dulles,” he said of the airport the Nationals use, “and driving to the ball park to get your car.”

At 69, the oldest manager in the major leagues, Johnson has an understandable gripe.

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A team – no, make that a platoon – of psychiatrists could have a field day with Bobby Valentine. They could make a career of analyzing him and his bizarre behavior.

When the Boston Red Sox hired Valentine as their manager last December after disgracefully firing Terry Francona, some fans and members of the news media asked “can Valentine change?”

The point of the question was that Valentine had acted so bizarrely in his previous managerial jobs in Texas and New York that people wondered if they would see the same old Bobby V. or a different, more mature and human and dignified Valentine, who could treat the Red Sox with intelligence and class.

Valentine didn’t leave the questioners in suspense long. Less than two weeks into the season, he pulled out one of his favorite old tricks and publicly questioned one of his veteran players.

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