After being swept by Mets, where can Nats find offense? (updated)

NEW YORK – Twelve days ago, the Nationals were coming off their second straight high-scoring win over the Diamondbacks and within two games of a .500 record. Their offense was humming, having scored nine or more runs in each outing of their four-game win streak.

But ever since then, runs have come at a premium. In the nine games since that 11-7 win in Arizona leading up to today’s finale against the Mets, the Nats scored just 15 runs for an average of just 1.7 per game.

And with today’s 4-3 loss completing a sweep in New York, that average isn’t much better as the Nats suffered a 22-inning scoreless streak from the sixth inning Tuesday night through the eighth today.

That’s not to take away from the Mets’ pitching this week. Their bullpen was lights out following Griffin Canning on Tuesday, David Peterson tossed a complete-game shutout last night and Kodai Senga continued his impressive start to the season today. But this Nats offense seems to be struggling against anyone and everyone.

Senga and his “ghost” forkball entered this afternoon’s finale with a 1.59 ERA that ranked second in the major leagues. After 5 ⅔ dominant innings, the right-hander now leads the majors with a 1.47 ERA.

“It's his best pitch, and he was really dominating today," Luis García Jr. said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. "He's one of the best pitchers in the league right now, so you got to give him credit.”

The Nats couldn’t touch the forkball, swinging 10 times at it and whiffing 40 percent of the time. And like Wednesday against Peterson, when they did connect, it was a lot of weak contact for quick outs, which kept Senga’s pitch count down.

“Senga was just really good," manager Davey Martinez said. "He kept everybody off-balance. I know we were at two strikes a lot, but he was really good, man. The fastballs and cutters that he threw were really nothing over the middle, the heart of the plate. So we had to battle all day."

James Wood’s first-inning single and José Tena’s fifth-inning walk were the only damage done against the Mets starter. And if not for an injury, Senga would have had a good chance to duplicate Peterson’s feat from yesterday.

In the sixth, CJ Abrams hit a hot shot to first baseman Pete Alonso and hustled down the line. Senga also had to hustle to the bag, and then made an incredibly athletic play to leap, grab Alonso's high toss in midair and tag the base to beat Abrams. But he landed awkwardly and immediately went to the ground, rolling in pain. After a visit with trainers, he departed the game under his own power.

While Senga’s injury was unfortunate (Mets manager Carlos Mendoza announced after the game Senga has a hamstring strain that will force him to the injured list), the Nats were happy to face anyone else while trying to get the offense going.

But they only mustered three runs in the ninth via García's RBI single off Ryne Stanek, Josh Bell’s RBI single off Edwin Díaz and García scoring on a Díaz wild pitch.

“We're a team that always competes, that never gives up," García said. "Like I said before, Senga was dominating, he was pitching really well, and things didn't go our way in the first couple of innings. And we had good at-bats in the ninth.”

“Really good at-bats," Martinez said. "As I always say, get ready for the fastball and get the ball up. No matter what they throw, if we stay in the strike zone, we hit the ball hard.

“When we start swinging the bat like that and taking pitches like we did and getting the ball up in the zone, those are good at bats. And if we can continue to do that, we're going to score some runs.”

Because the Mets' starter, as was the case last night, brought his A game, Michael Soroka also had to be near flawless to keep the Nats in the contest. But like Jake Irvin, Soroka too struggled out of the gate.

He entered today without issuing more than two walks in a single start this season. He issued two through the first three batters he faced, which was asking for trouble.

“Honestly, neither of those two walks were all that bad of walks, to be honest with you," Soroka said. "I mean, (Francisco) Lindor fouled off some really good pitches. Obviously, you don't want to start the game with two walks. He saw whatever it was, eight, nine pitches in that at-bat. I threw two pretty good ones to (Juan) Soto that could have gone either way. Yeah, those happen."

Sure enough, trouble came in the form of a three-run home run by Jeff McNeil to give the Mets a quick 3-0 lead.

"It was just one mistake to McNeil. He got just enough of it and three were on the board right away. And we were behind the eight ball," Soroka said. "So more than anything, it was just kind of a matter of stranding our guys out there for a long inning right out of the gate. Not getting them back in the dugout quick enough. So let's just stay on them and get quick outs next time.”

But to Soroka’s credit, he settled in nicely. After the homer, he retired 11 of the next 14 batters he faced. And he too got a lot of swing-and-miss – 11 to be exact – thanks to his fastball-slurve combination.

“Just to know that you're continuing to make good pitches and you got to give your team a chance to win," he said. "Obviously, after a 30-pitch first on a hot day, you got to try to be efficient moving forward and try to give them some innings. I wish it could have been more than five, but again, kind of kept them in it and you saw what we did at the end. Obviously, a couple of mistakes made me pay.”

Just as Soroka seemed to find his groove, up stepped notable Nats killer Brandon Nimmo, who hit his third home run in the last two games. This one came off an inside fastball well off the plate that he was able to muscle down the first base line to increase the Mets’ lead to 4-0 in the fifth. The Citi Field crowd of 39,779 wasn’t quite sure it would go, but celebrated when the ball clanged off the right field foul pole.

With three homers this series, Nimmo now has 19 career longballs against the Nats, his most against a single opponent in his career.

If only the Nats offense could produce anything remotely similar after scoring four runs in the first five innings of this series.

Now the Nats will head home to face the Marlins and Rockies over the next seven games, still in search of some “thump” from their lineup, as Martinez put it the other day.

"I loved the at-bats that last inning," the skipper said. "So we got to take that, come back tomorrow and start those at-bats from the first inning on. Those at-bats were great.”

“Every series is important, but we have to go out and compete," García said. "And I think every pitch, every at-bat, is going to be important.”

One can’t help but wonder if a part of that solution is currently six hours away in Rochester, N.Y.

Brady House, the Nationals’ top-rated position-player prospect, hit a two-run homer this afternoon with Triple-A Rochester, his 13th of the season and third this month.

That would almost put the 22-year-old at a 34-homer pace over 162 games.

With the Nats offense in a prolonged slump and a pair of last-place teams visiting on this upcoming homestand, is it finally time to make a House call?