The two story lines I’m watching in Nats Land right now: The team’s dance with a .500 record, and Jayson Werth’s journey to a sub-.200 batting average, beneath baseball’s fabled Mendoza Line.

After last night’s 1-3 performance at the plate in Houston, Werth is hitting .212 on the season. (For the record: The Mendoza Line is named weak hitting vagabond shortstop Mario Mendoza. He had a lifetime average of .215.)

He went 2-for-12 in Atlanta (.167), this after MASN and Nationals marketers decided to base their promotional campaign for the team’s first series after the All-Star Break on Werth’s prowess at the plate, even if that prowess had only been visible this season against the Braves on the road.

So you ended up with TV commercials showing Werth in the batters box with an excited announcer letting us know the $30,000-per-at-bat outfielder was “batting .333… at Turner Field!”

Not any more, he ain’t.

Werth has invited increased post-All-Star break scrutiny by deflecting his season-long slump with assertions that he’s a late-bloomer year after year.

“I’ve always played my best ball towards the end of the season,” he told the Washington Post’s Adam Kilgore several weeks ago.

He’s 3-18 since the break.

But, there are places where Werth is still celebrated. Bowie, for example, where the Baysox are putting on Jayson Werth Bobblehead Night on Monday.

Werth played in Bowie from 1998-2000, and his overall stats with the O’s minor league club are: .237,  six home runs, 38 RBIs.

But back to the show: Will Werth swing lower than .200 as a Nat?

Well, to quote the same folks who told us Werth was going to burn up Atlanta like Sherman last weekend:  Expect It™!