ARLINGTON, Texas – One of these days, perhaps in the near future, perhaps in the not-so-near future, the Nationals will reach the .500 mark and win their next game so they can proudly declare they are a winning baseball team for the first time in three years.
That day isn’t today, though. Because presented with their third opportunity this season to leap over the proverbial .500 hump, they once again came up short at the plate and lost 6-0 to the Rangers.
The Nationals have made significant strides through the season’s first month-plus. They’re playing a much more competitive brand of baseball than in recent seasons. They’re getting quality pitching performances a majority of the time. But they’re still not hitting with any regularity, and that was never on display more than it was this week at Globe Life Field.
Facing the defending World Series champions, the Nats scored a grand total of two runs, finishing with 12 hits and three walks during the course of 27 innings of play. In spite of all that, they still won one of the three games and had a legitimate chance to win the other two.
Each loss, alas, came with the team sitting right at .500. And so the drought continues: The Nationals still have not owned a winning record since July 1, 2021.