Bats not forcing pitchers to work; Kuhl, Ward struggle again

SAN DIEGO – Very little went right for the Nationals on Friday night. Such is the case when you lose a game like they did, 13-3 to the Padres.

The focus of the game story was Patrick Corbin, whose fifth-inning meltdown turned a competitive game into a blowout. But the left-hander was far from the only reason the Nats were shellacked by San Diego.

The lineup once again did very little for most of the night. Through five innings, they managed three hits and failed to score a run. They did finally get to Joe Musgrove in the sixth on a two-out double by Jeimer Candelario and an RBI single by Joey Meneses. And then they scored two more runs in garbage time in the top of the ninth.

But most telling was Musgrove’s final line: seven innings, six hits, one run, zero walks, seven strikeouts, 90 pitches, 67 strikes.

The Nationals once again drew zero walks, a recurring problem that seems to be getting worse by the day. They’ve drawn a grand total of 22 walks over their last 18 games, barely more than one per game. They haven’t drawn more than two walks in a game since June 13 in Houston. They haven’t drawn more than three walks in a game since May 28 in Kansas City.

The domino effect of that? They’re letting opposing starting pitchers go deep in games without having to expend much energy. Musgrove on Friday became the eighth starter to go at least seven innings against the Nats while throwing fewer than 100 pitches this season. And four of those instances have come in the last 11 days alone.

“We came in here knowing Musgrove is going to throw strikes, get ahead, and then the curveball comes into play,” manager Davey Martinez said. “So we tried to be aggressive on fastballs. We just missed a couple. Then when he was getting his breaking balls over, we started chasing a little bit. He started throwing more for strikes. And it was tough.”

* With seven runs allowed in five innings, Corbin dug his teammates into a sizable hole. With four runs allowed in one inning of relief, Chad Kuhl buried them altogether.

Kuhl faced one batter in the bottom of the sixth, getting Ha-Seong Kim to fly out to the warning track in center, then returned for the seventh. He proceeded to face eight batters but retired only two of them. Four runs scored on four hits, a walk, a hit batter and a wild pitch.

All told, Kuhl owns an 8.45 ERA and 2.001 WHIP in 16 games this season (five starts, 11 relief appearances). He’s been scored upon in five of his last seven outings, allowing multiple runs in four of those games.

“His stuff is good,” Martinez said. “He just falls behind. Then he’s got to make pitches, and his misses are almost right down the middle of the plate. We’ve got to talk to him about utilizing both sides of the plate. But his fastball is good. He’s hanging a lot of sliders now. But the biggest thing is that he’s falling behind a lot.”

Kuhl wasn’t the only reliever struggling Friday night. Thaddeus Ward took over for him and gave up two eighth-inning runs on a leadoff double by Fernando Tatis Jr. and a two-run homer by Juan Soto.

Ward, the club’s Rule 5 draft pick, now has a 6.21 ERA and 1.552 WHIP in 20 appearances on the season.