After 2-8 stretch, Nationals entering dangerous territory

They're preaching patience and levelheadedness in the Nationals clubhouse right now, and honestly that's what they have to do on April 13 when the ballclub is struggling to score runs, is two games under .500 and just got held to one run on four hits by the Rockies for the second straight night.

"Just got to keep grinding," Bryce Harper said. "Keep doing the things we can do to win ballgames and do the things we can control."

"We've got to play until the game's over," Tanner Roark added. "Do our job at the plate and on the mound. I don't think there's any sense of (lacking) urgency."

"We know it's a long season," Anthony Rendon chimed in. "We're what ... 12 games in? Fifteen games in? Yeah, we're not starting off great like we would hope to, but we've done this in the past, too. We're not stressing."

Ah, but there's the rub. The Nationals have done this a few times in the past, and it has been a harbinger of things to come. With tonight's 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Rockies, the Nats have lost eight of their last 10. According to Baseball-Reference's Play Index, it's only the third time they've had a 2-8 stretch in the last seven seasons, the previous ones coming in July 2013 and June 2015.

Yes, for those who may not remember, those are the only two seasons they haven't reached the playoffs during this run of success.

Perhaps this lull wouldn't be as concerning if not for the fact the Mets just won their ninth straight to improve to 11-1. The Nationals, meanwhile, are 6-8 and off to their worst 14-game start since (gulp) 2009 ... when they proceeded to lose 103 games.

No, these Nats are not going to lose 103 games. Not with Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg and Harper and Rendon (who did have to depart tonight's game early after fouling a ball off his left big toe, relieved to find out later X-rays were negative for any fractures).

But before the season is even one-tenth complete, the Nationals are staring at a six-game deficit in the division, with what suddenly looks like a critical three-game series at Citi Field set to begin Monday. (The pitching matchup for that series opener appears to be either A.J. Cole or Jeremy Hellickson vs. Jacob deGrom.)

First things first. This team needs to figure out how to start scoring some more runs this weekend and take advantage of the back-to-back starts by Scherzer and Strasburg.

"We've got really good hitters, and I know that we're going to hit," rookie manager Davey Martinez said. "If our pitching continues to give us a chance to win, we're going to start winning these games, I know we are. So I'm not worried about that. I just want to reiterate the fact that we need to just play clean defense."

Martinez made that same plea earlier in the afternoon, and sure enough one unclean moment in the field came back to haunt his team. When Trea Turner let his eyes start looking at first base before he had fully secured D.J. LeMahieu's sixth-inning grounder, the ball squirted away and the shortstop had been charged with an error. Three batters later, LeMahieu scored from third on Carlos Gonzalez's sacrifice fly, the run that put the Rockies on top for good.

"I say it every day: 27 outs," Martinez lamented. "That's what it comes down to. I really believe you give good teams 28-29 outs, bad things are going to happen."

The error by Turner - who had already departed the clubhouse by the time reporters entered postgame - would not have loomed so large had the Nationals lineup simply been able to scratch together more than the one run it managed off lefty Kyle Freeland and five Colorado relievers. That run, which was scored via Harper's fifth-inning sac fly, came during an inning that could've been so much more.

With the bases loaded and one out, Harper came to the plate to face the fading Freeland, as the crowd of 32,702 rose and pleaded with the star slugger for a big blast. They settled for that sac fly, then (after Rockies manager Bud Black summoned right-hander Scott Oberg to replace Freeland) a weak grounder to short by the .116-hitting Ryan Zimmerman.

"I think at the plate, you get frustrated because you are chasing bad pitches," Harper said. "Got to get a pitch over the plate that I can drive, and (I) haven't done that. Had an opportunity bases loaded, didn't get it done. But I think as a team we are having good at-bats, plugging along the best we can."

Right now, the Nationals' best isn't enough. The season is only 14 games old, sure, but we've seen this team dig itself into a hole before. And we've seen the Mets go on an April tear at the same time before. And the end result of all that was not pleasant.

"We're going to continue to play, and we're going to do well," Martinez said. "I promise you we're going to do well."