As the innings passed by and scoring opportunity after scoring opportunity passed by without the Nationals converting, the reality began to sink in. This team was about to be swept by the Marlins and extend its interminable losing streak to eight games.
There was nothing novel about today’s 3-1 loss before an unenthused crowd of 28,983 on South Capitol Street. MacKenzie Gore pitched well enough to win but did not. A fast-fading lineup that hasn’t hit in two weeks once again did not hit. There wasn’t even the token ninth-inning rally that comes up just short to lament.
No, nothing is going right for the Nationals these days. And on the heels of this lifeless weekend sweep at the hands of one of the worst teams in the majors, the only remaining question is: What happens now?
Is there a dramatic change coming, whether to the roster or the coaching staff? If not, how is this current, underperforming group going to flip the switch and start playing again like it did only a couple weeks ago when it was making a run at the .500 mark?
That question will have to be addressed by the people who make the most important decisions in this organization, those who have to decide if this team truly is capable of more or not.
Gore has taken advantage of his share of dominant starts this season. This wasn’t one of those. The left-hander had to grind his way through six innings, overcoming some early lack of command, a high pitch count and an aggressive Marlins lineup that jumped on a few fastballs to take a quick lead.
Only four pitches into the game, Miami had runners on first-and-third thanks to singles by Agustín Ramírez and Otto Lopez (each on fastballs). And when Eric Wagaman lofted a fly ball to right to bring home Ramírez, Gore and the Nationals faced a 1-0 deficit.
The Marlins scored again in the second, this time needing only one swing to do it. Dane Myers got a changeup right down the pipe and hammered it to left for a leadoff homer, with Gore putting two more runners on base in the second and watching his pitch count rise to 42 by the time he had recorded six total outs in the game.
The burgeoning ace would find a way to muddle through it all, though, and keep anyone else from crossing the plate while he was in the game. Despite ending the fourth at 77 pitches, he still notched two more zeros, needing only 20 pitches combined the fifth and sixth. He walked off the mound having completed another quality start, his 10th in 15 outings this season, his ERA now at 2.89 to go along with a league-leading 119 strikeouts. But because he departed with his team trailing 2-1, he found himself stuck on three wins.
The deficit grew to 3-1 when recently acquired reliever Ryan Loutos surrendered a seventh-inning run on two bunt singles, a walk and a sacrifice fly, putting added pressure on a Nationals lineup that desperately needs less pressure right now to snap out of its prolonged funk.
Davey Martinez tried a new look at the top of his lineup for today’s game, bumping Alex Call up to the leadoff spot and moving CJ Abrams down to the No. 3 spot in hopes he might get more opportunities to drive in runs. It sort of worked in the bottom of the first, with Call drawing a leadoff walk, Abrams doubling down the right field line and Call ultimately scoring on Luis García Jr.’s groundball to second.
But the real story for the Nationals was an inability to deliver on a number of scoring opportunities against Eury Pérez and the Marlins' bullpen. They went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, coming up short in the first, third, fourth, fifth and eighth innings.
The most egregious missed opportunity came in the fifth. With runners on the corners and one out, Martinez put García in motion off first base, hoping to avoid a double play with Josh Bell at the plate. Bell still somehow managed to hit a sharp grounder to third that jump-started a 5-4-3, around-the-horn double play to end the inning, kill the momentum and drop Bell’s batting average to .179.
The Nationals have scored 31 total runs in 13 games this month. The question facing everyone in the organization: Now what?