Depleted Nats lineup is quiet again in loss to Phillies (updated)

An early home run by the opposition left the Nationals in yet another early hole. A big blast of their own a few minutes later brought some life back into the park and left ample opportunity for them to make up the rest of the deficit before day’s end.

Alas, it’s kind of tough to mount a comeback – even if one requires only two runs to complete – without recording a single hit. And for the Nats, just one hit was a major chore.

Held scoreless and hitless the rest of the way following Joey Gallo’s two-run homer in the bottom of the third, the Nationals never even gave themselves a chance to mount a comeback against the Phillies, who rode their early offense to a 5-2 victory in the second game of a weekend series.

Despite getting a string of zeros from starter Jake Irvin and relievers Derek Law and Robert Garcia from the fourth through eighth innings, the Nats lineup was again shut down by a Phillies pitching staff that allowed only two hits Friday night during a 4-0 win.

All of which leaves the Nationals at 2-6 overall and now needing a win Sunday to avoid a series sweep and a hugely disappointing season-opening homestand before embarking on a long West Coast trip.

"It's hard to collectively say we're not good right now," Gallo said. "We just have to keep showing up and playing. It's a long season. I think we're eight games in. You've just got to keep showing up and working. We're putting the work in. At some point, it pays off."

If ever a team needed to try to keep the game close early, this was it, with a lineup depleted by the absence of leadoff man CJ Abrams, scratched about two hours before first pitch with a bone bruise in his left pinky finger suffered while sliding into second base Friday night. Manager Davey Martinez said he's hoping the shortstop is able to play Sunday.

"We'll see tomorrow," the manager said. "My hope is he can play tomorrow. If he can't play tomorrow, then, yeah, I'll be a little worried."

So imagine the dismay in the park when the home team already trailed 4-0 in the third inning, the result of two critical mistakes: One in the field, one on the mound.

Lane Thomas’ awkward (and ill-advised) attempt to catch Alec Bohm’s sinking liner to right in the top of the second turned what should have been a simple single into an RBI triple, with J.T. Realmuto coming all the way around to score from first as Thomas scrambled to pick himself back up and chase down the ball as it rolled toward the warning track.

"I think the ball sliced on him a lot more than he thought," Martinez said. "He thought about diving for it, and it just kept going away from him."

Irvin appeared to be in good shape in the top of the third, with two outs and nobody on. But when Trea Turner lined a double to left, Martinez was presented with the following dilemma: Pitch to Bryce Harper with two outs and first base open, or intentionally walk him and go after Realmuto instead?

Martinez opted to walk Harper, a decision that was met with resounding boos from the bipartisan crowd of 29,718.

"The numbers, for me, matched up. And we've seen what Bryce can do to us," Martinez said. "The first ball (in his first at-bat), he just missed. On any other day in the summertime, that can be trouble. I thought the matchup was with Realmuto."

The matchup may have made sense, but Irvin's subsequent execution didn't live up to the moment. After getting ahead of Realmuto with back-to-back curveballs, the right-hander hung his last one right over the plate, then spun around and watched in horror as the ball sailed to left for a three-run homer and a 4-0 deficit.

"The outing as a whole was really good," Irvin said. "Just one really bad pitch, and that's baseball."

This was the third straight day the Nats trailed by at least three runs by the third inning, creating an uphill climb that would be challenging even with a fully stocked lineup. Today’s batting order wasn’t even close to fully stocked, as evidenced by the fact that light-hitting utility man Ildemaro Vargas was batting sixth.

The Nationals did get one big blast of their own, though, to at least cut the deficit in half shortly after Realmuto’s long drive. Continuing a recent surge after an abysmal start to his season, Gallo ambushed Ranger Suárez’s first-pitch fastball in the third and sent it 415 feet to right field for his second homer in four days.

This was the 200th homer of Gallo’s career, and though it came off a lefty, that wasn’t such an unusual event. Fifty-four of the slugger’s 200 homers have come against lefties, and his home run rate against them (6.1 percent) is nearly the same as it is against righties (6.4 percent).

"Just always being able to say I hit 200 home runs in the big leagues is crazy to me," he said. "As a kid, you never know if you're going to get to the major leagues, let alone hit 200 homers or anything. It's a pretty cool thing."

Whatever hope there was of Gallo’s homer sparking the Nats to more offensive success disappeared in a hurry. They didn’t record another hit off Suárez during the ensuing three-plus innings before the Phillies starter departed. And when reliever Jeff Hoffman entered in the bottom of the seventh, he needed all of six pitches to retire Vargas, Trey Lipscomb and pinch-hitter Eddie Rosario in order.

There would be no late rally from this lineup, only an insurance run surrendered by Dylan Floro in the top of the ninth that created an even larger deficit for a team struggling to do anything at the plate right now.

"When we struggle, we just chase," Martinez said. "We're chasing a lot. We've just got to get the ball in the zone. There are some guys who are better right now, and there are a lot of guys who are just struggling because they're just going up there and swinging at what they see."