Nats' offensive woes continue in shutout loss (updated)

The Nationals approached the precipice of a .500 record thanks to a suddenly resurgent offensive attack that put up historic numbers over a stretch of four late-night games on the West Coast last week.

If they’re ever going to get themselves over that elusive threshold, they’re going to have to come up with examples of some more consistent offensive production, even if it doesn’t qualify as historic.

A lineup that already was struggling during this weekend’s homestand ran today into the brick wall known as Jacob deGrom, who looked like his old vintage self in leading the Rangers to a 5-0 victory on South Capitol Street.

And though Mitchell Parker bounced back from another shaky first inning to otherwise cruise until he was pulled following the sixth, the two early runs he allowed (plus three more surrendered late by reliever Eduardo Salazar) were more than enough for Texas to win and set up a rubber match in Sunday’s series finale.

Will the Nationals (30-34) get going again at the plate by then? They haven’t shown any ability to do so to this point in the homestand. After establishing a club record by scoring at least nine runs in four consecutive games last week in Seattle and Phoenix, they’ve now scored nine total runs in their last six games.

"Forget about the whole week. Today, that guy was good," manager Davey Martinez said. "He dotted his fastballs. His slider was really good. That's what you're going to get."

Remarkably, the Nats have still won two of those last six games, each by the count of 2-0 thanks to lights-out pitching from their own MacKenzie Gore and Michael Soroka. Parker pitched well enough to merit a win today, but the left-hander nevertheless was done in by his usual Achilles’ heel when he took the mound.

The Nationals are well aware of Parker’s first-inning issues, and they say they’ve been trying various techniques in an attempt to fix the glitch. At some point, though, would they consider using an opener on his start days, holding back the lefty until the second inning?

"We thought about it," Martinez said pregame. "But when he’s on, he’s on. He’s good. This is something he needs to learn. We can’t open up every game for him. He’s got to go out there, deal with it and face it. And hopefully he gets through it."

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. But it alone can’t solve everything. And so it was that Parker found himself in that all-too-familiar position as soon as today’s game began, allowing a leadoff single to Sam Haggerty and then a one-out single to Josh Jung to put himself in a jam.

Marcus Semien then hit a sinking liner to left-center, with Robert Hassell III charging in from his position in hopes of making the play. Once the rookie center fielder realized he wasn’t going to get there in time, he pulled up, conceding the single to ensure nothing worse happened. Except something worse did happen: The ball bounced and scooted past Hassell, rolling toward the wall. Two runs wound up scoring, with Semien racing all the way to third base on a play ultimately ruled a single and two-base error.

"The idea right there is to try to keep it in front of me at the last second," Hassell said. "But it's hard enough to try to catch it on the short-bounce anyway. If I can make that play, it helps us a lot right there. I've just got to go get that ball."

Only one of the two runs was charged to Parker, so his first-inning ERA did technically go down a bit today, from 10.50 to 10.38. And then his ERA from the second inning on really went down thanks to lights-out work the rest of the way.

Pounding the strike zone – he issued zero walks for the first time this season – Parker retired 14 straight batters through the fifth inning, notching four strikeouts along the way. And when he finally surrendered an infield single to Haggerty to open the sixth, he watched as Hassell atoned his earlier error by perfectly positioning himself to catch Wyatt Langford’s fly out to the warning track and fire a strike to second base to nail the tagging-up Haggerty.

Parker struck out Jung with a 95 mph fastball to end the sixth and end his afternoon. He wound up having surrendered only one earned run over six innings on 83 pitches, lowering his season ERA after the first inning to a very strong 3.05.

"It's huge, obviously," the lefty said. "We still have some stuff to work on, but it's a step in the right direction."

Trouble is, the Nationals wouldn’t fully make the most of Parker’s efforts without providing him some run support, which they did not. Facing one of the best pitchers on the planet (when healthy), they barely gave themselves a chance.

DeGrom put only three runners on base during his seven innings, with Nathaniel Lowe singling and Alex Call getting hit by a pitch in the second and Luis García Jr. singling in the fourth. Nobody advanced any farther than that. Swinging strikeouts by Hassell and Keibert Ruiz (both on sliders) killed the potential second-inning rally. Garcia killed the potential fourth-inning rally on his own when he unsuccessfully tried to steal second.

"I think we had a good plan against him: To stay on the fastball," said Hassell, who struck out in both of his at-bats against deGrom before singling off reliever Luke Jackson in the eighth. "But I think you saw he was trying to get guys off the fastball with that slider. And the slider was good; it was 90 mph. I think you saw what a healthy deGrom can do, for sure. I think we were all prepared, but he got us today."

All told, there was very little to report about the Nationals from an offensive standpoint. A lineup that put together such an impressive four-game stretch last week out west has gone ice cold since coming back home this week.

"Hitting's not easy," Martinez said. "Hitting comes and goes. You're not going to freaking hit every day. I say it every day; it's tough. But you've got to be able to work, and in a game like today, try to scratch and claw to get a couple runs and stay in it."