It is always hard when you play the last month of the season and your team is not in the playoff race anymore. But I still think this is the most fun time of year. Even if we can’t make it there is always a chance to spoil it, for the other teams in the National League East.

And these are all big games. The atmosphere in the cities we finish with — Philadelphia, New York and Atlanta — is going to be incredible. And even when we play those teams at home they’ve all shown that they travel well.

The thing about our team is we pride ourselves on being difficult to play against. This is a scrappy team and Manny Acta has done a great job keeping us motivated. Now we just need to keep playing that way because we’re going against teams that have to win to keep their seasons alive. Even Atlanta, which had a bad week and fell to seven games out, can get right back in it if they play well against us. So we have to be ready for that. Anything can happen down the stretch if a team gets hot. We don’t want them to get hot against us.

At this point, guys start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, too. Our travel schedule might be the easiest it’s been all year. We had a day off Thursday, play six games in Atlanta and Miami, get another day off, have a final 10 games at RFK and then a short trip to New York and Philadelphia with a day off in between. That’s a good opportunity for us to finish strong

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These last three weeks are also a big deal for the younger guys we called up from the minors this week. Prospects like Justin Maxwell, who was drafted the same year I was, and Ross Detwiler, our first-round pick this past June, get to see what playing at this level is like.

That was huge for me when I was called up in September 2005. Not even playing on the field so much as just being around the team every day. Where it really pays off, though, is at spring training the next season because you go into that environment a lot more relaxed. All that nervousness you felt in September is gone. The whole experience was worth it for me. It will be for these guys, too.

As told to The Examiner’s Brian McNally.

Nats third baseman Ryan Zimmerman is one of baseball’s rising stars and, at 22, the face of the franchise. Now he’ll share his thoughts with The Examiner’s readers each week throughout the baseball season.