The Nationals needed improvements all across the board to snap their three-game losing streak. Following last night’s 10-0 blowout loss to the Cardinals in the series opener, they needed better pitching and better offense.

Unfortunately, they got neither in their fourth straight loss, this one by a score of 4-2 with frustration mounting on an otherwise lovely 72-degree spring day in the District.

Recently, it had been the sixth inning that has buried the Nationals, with their opponents scoring a combined 18 runs in that frame over the last 11 games. But today, their woes came around much earlier.

After a perfect first inning on 12 pitches, Trevor Williams labored through a 35-pitch second that resulted in the Cardinals jumping out to an early 4-0 lead.

With one out, the right-hander, who was looking to right his own ship, hit a batter and issued a walk. A forceout at second put runners on the corners, but with only one out needed to get out of the inning.

Williams proceeded to give up three straight run-scoring hits – two singles and a two-run double – to put his team in an early hole.

“We did well with the strikeout in the first batter of the second. And then I dug myself a hole with the hit-by-pitch and the walk," Williams said after the game. "I thought we were able to execute pitches even around that. But the one that I want back is the one to (Lars) Nootbaar; he's a good hitter, and I really have to focus and know where my misses are to him. Unfortunately, that was the dagger of that inning. But after that, I thought we threw the ball well."

Although he came back for a shutdown third, Williams’ pitch count was already at 63 through the first three innings. But the veteran buckled down and was able to gut out three more frames, keeping the Cardinals from scoring any more runs.

It was the third straight start Williams has surrendered four or more runs, raising his ERA to 5.88. But it was also the first time he has completed six innings since April 20 last year against the Astros.

“When you give up a crooked number early, you have to find a way to get as many innings as possible. And I'm thankful that I was able to get through six," he said. "The last couple starts, I had an opportunity to complete six and I didn't. So we're trending in a positive direction. I finished my adding with the four zeros. So I'm going to take that into my next start and look to continue the positive trend.”

With Williams keeping the game from spiraling out of control in the second, one would think the Nats would have plenty of chances to mount another late-inning rally, especially since they weren’t able to get one going against old friend Erick Fedde on Friday night.

But the Nats’ struggles at the plate carried over to this afternoon against Andre Pallante, a 26-year-old right-hander who entered the day with a 4.75 ERA overall and a 5.66 ERA on the road.

“Two things need to happen: We need to stop walking guys and hitting guys, and we need to accept our walks. It's the bottom line," said manager Davey Martinez. "We need to accept our walks and stop chasing. It's how we're gonna get runs. It's how we're gonna come back and start winning games.”

To say they were all bad at-bats by the Nationals wouldn’t be fair. In all honesty, they ran into some bad luck frequently today.

By this humble beat reporter’s count, the Cardinals made five impressive defensive plays to rob the Nationals of baserunners, all through the third inning. Three of them had expected batting averages that surely made the respective hitters pull some hair out: .890 for Nathaniel Lowe, .710 for Dylan Crews and .660 for CJ Abrams.

“We hit some balls hard. But we go up there, we got a chance to make something happen, you just got to be patient," Martinez said. "You're not going to go up there leading off the inning and hit a two-run homer. You're not. So we got to accept our walks. We still got guys chasing all over the place. That's not going to work.”

With Pallante’s pitch count relatively low and the Nats having only three baserunners against him (all via singles) entering the eighth, the Cardinals starter got within five outs of repeating Fedde’s feat from last night. That was until Crews finally knocked him out of the game with a two-run home run with one out in the eighth.

The struggling outfielder turned on an inside slider and crushed it 105.1 mph off his bat and 393 feet to left field for his fifth homer of the year, finally giving the crowd of 37,796 something to cheer about.

“I feel like it was probably the easiest swing that I've had all day," Crews said. "Just kind of free and easy. Just drop the barrel and just get to the spot, just beat it there, really. And like I said, I was working hard in pregame and just trying to take easy swings and let the pitcher supply the power. And I kind of just did that right there.”

Abrams doubled and James Wood walked to keep the rally going, but Lowe grounded out to Nolan Arenado to end the eighth.

The Nats loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth, with José Tena hitting a single and pinch-hitter Josh Bell and Crews drawing back-to-back walks against Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley. But Abrams flew out to right on the first pitch to end the game.

The Nats will have to hope the momentum carries over to tomorrow as they try to avoid the sweep.

“The thing I'm most proud of is the fight that we bring at the end of these games," Crews said. "There's a lot of times where we've made it interesting in the end and have had awesome comebacks. So I think that's the thing that I'm most proud of is how we fight back. I think no matter what the lead is, we're always in the game, and we're gonna show them how we fight every time at the end.”