Nats go down quietly as winning streak ends (updated)

ST LOUIS – The Nationals’ recent surge has been keyed in many ways by young (or, at least, inexperienced) players making a case to be part of the organization’s long-term plan.

The roster isn’t deep enough just yet, though, to be filled entirely with building blocks. There are still more than a few veterans in prominent roles as the season winds down, some of them rising to the occasion to help make this surge possible, others still searching for lost production.

So tonight’s 4-1 loss to the Cardinals, snapping a three-game losing streak, saw 35-year-old Paolo Espino allow three runs over five innings, 36-year-old Steve Cishek give up a seventh-inning homer to Nolan Gorman and 42-year-old Nelson Cruz go hitless out of the cleanup spot.

Such is life for a rebuilding club that hasn’t completely rebuilt the roster with up-and-comers just yet.

The Nationals were seeking their first four-game winning streak of the season, not to mention seven wins in nine games for the first time in 2022. They didn’t get there, falling to 48-88 overall and losing some of the uplifting vibes they had created in recent days with a fairly uneventful performance against the National League Central-leading Cardinals.

"It's just one of those days," manager Davey Martinez said. "We just couldn't get anything going."

Espino entered tonight’s game winless on the season despite a respectable 4.22 ERA across 96 innings. His 20 relief appearances earlier in the year mostly came in blowouts, removing him from consideration for a decision. And though he’s been less effective since moving into the rotation, he typically has given his team a chance. Indeed, the Nationals actually won five of the last eight games he started, even though he wasn’t credited with the win in any of them.

"I don't know, I haven't won any, but for me the most important thing is to go out there and try to give the team a chance to win," Espino said. "For me, that's number one. If I can end up winning a game, it's even better, right? But that's actually a stat you can't really control. I just go out there and try to go as deep as I can and keep the team in there for a win."

Espino again gave them a chance tonight. He cruised through his first three innings on 49 pitches, the only two batters to reach base doing so via an infield single and a ground ball through the infield shift. But the script flipped once he had to face the Cardinals lineup a second time.

During a three-run bottom of the fourth, Espino surrendered four hits, three of them of the extra-base variety. Brendan Donovan led off the inning with a homer to right-center. Corey Dickerson and Nolan Gorman each delivered doubles later on to finish off the rally and leave the Nationals trailing for the first time in four days.

"It's definitely frustrating when you give up those soft contacts that end up landing, then you end up giving up a good, hard contact that scores runs," Espino said. "That's also part of the game. Sometimes, they hit hard contact at (a defender). It's just something that happens during the game. You've got to get that stuff out of your head and keep pitching."

They trailed for the first time since Friday in New York not simply because of less-than-outstanding pitching, but because of a return of the anemic offense that has plagued them most of the season but had disappeared during their three-game winning streak, during which they scored seven, seven and six runs, respectively.

The Nats’ lone run off Cardinals left-hander José Quintana came in the top of the second, when Luis García ripped a one-out double down the right field line and Ildemaro Vargas came through with a two-out RBI single.

There were opportunities for more, but the heart of the lineup couldn’t deliver enough with runners on base. After Joey Meneses doubled with one out in the first, Luke Voit and Nelson Cruz each popped out to strand him in scoring position.

Two innings later, Meneses grounded into a double play following Lane Thomas’ leadoff single. And then in the sixth, Cruz grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to wipe out Voit’s single, leaving the 42-year-old designated hitter 0-for-3 with a strikeout and nary a ball hit out of the infield in his first game back after missing the previous three with a sore right knee.

"He was fine. He just got beat a couple times chasing balls," Martinez said. "When Nellie's good, he's got to get the ball up in the strike zone. That's when he's really good."

The Nats did little else at the plate until the ninth, when Meneses notched another double - his club record 42nd hit in 30 career big league games - and Cruz drew a one-out walk to bring Keibert Ruiz to the plate representing the tying run. But Ruiz sent a long fly ball to the warning track in left for the second out, and García struck out to end the game.

"We're all out there trying to do our job," Meneses said. "Pitchers are trying to do their job, and the hitters are trying to do their job as well. It's just generally frustrating when things don't go our way."