June is over, time for a new beginning for Nats in July

The best news of the day for the Nationals is June is finally over.

The Nats went 9-16 in June this season.

After getting used to an offense based on power, the Nats offense slowed down to crawl in the year's sixth month.

The Nats finished with 20 homers in June, and that was after hitting seven in one game on Friday in 17-7 win over the Phillies. Even with that late push, the Nats home run total was good for only 12th place in the National League.

By contrast the Dodgers hit 55 homers in June. St. Louis and Arizona each hit 37 round trippers in the month. The Nats at-bats per home run average was every 41.9 at-bats, good for third worst in the league. They had only 66 extra base hits, tied for second to last with the Padres in June.

Compare that to June of 2017, when the club was hitting their stride with 105 extra base hits, good for second in the National League behind the Dodgers (109).

The Nats mustered only 199 hits in the month, which was No. 13 in the National League. The Cubs and the Reds each connected with 259 hits in June. Their .369 slugging percentage was also No. 12 in the league for the month.

The Nats were second to the Brewers in the month with 21 steals. Milwaukee earned a league-high 23.

Their batting average on pinch-hits was .216 which was No. 10 in the National League for June.

So far this season the Nats are 8-15 in one-run games. Last year they were 30-21 in one-run contests. They ended up 52-36 at the end of the first half last season. For the Nats to do that this season, they would have to go 11-3 to go 53-43. That would still keep them about seven games behind last year's pace.

Not having a healthy lineup has been critical. Daniel Murphy has not been able to return to his form of 2017, and he is not hitting for power. Ryan Zimmerman cannot return until July 9. Matt Adams has still not returned and he was a big part of 13 homers and 42 RBIs when he was in the lineup. Pedro Severino has not been able to hit consistently in the first half.

The starting pitching has always been a critical strength of this team. The bullpen has been reworked and really has done its job in keeping the Nats in games. But the bottom line for the Nats is the offense must get back to scoring runs and finding ways to create more scoring opportunities if the Nats are going to have the chance to repeat in their division for the third year in a row.

The Nats still have nine games combined remaining against the Braves and the Phillies. More importantly, maybe it's the 16 games against the Marlins and the 13 games against the Mets that will help the most for the Nats.

But either way, the club will need more than Anthony Rendon, Juan Soto, Adam Eaton, Michael A. Taylor and Trea Turner to get the offense rolling again. And, of course, Bryce Harper needs some serious consistency at the plate for this team to click. That is obvious.

Last season the Nats went 18-8 in July. They will need that kind of run this season to get on track.