Lifeless Nats fall 1-0 to lose series in Pittsburgh (updated)

PITTSBURGH – If nothing else, the first two weeks of the season offered up an apparently real sign of improvement from the Nationals lineup: Power.

A ballclub that ranked near the bottom of the majors in home runs and slugging the last two seasons was now hitting the ball in the air with authority. Through their first 13 games, the Nats totaled 42 extra-base hits, 18 of them homers.

And then they hit the road and stopped hitting altogether, the latest example coming today in a lifeless 1-0 loss to the Pirates to wrap up a miserable series at PNC Park.

Shut out into the eighth by Andrew Heaney one night after they suffered the same fate against Bailey Falter, the Nationals wasted a quality pitching performance by Trevor Williams and their own beleaguered bullpen, which rose to the challenge for a change and kept the game close.

"Look, I think we're playing great baseball, and we all believe in ourselves and believe that we can take it to the next level," said Williams, whose team is now 7-12 to open the season. "We hold each other accountable, and we hold each other to a higher standard. We're going to keep putting our head down, because the only way through this is through."

All told, the Nats managed five hits (four singles and a double) this afternoon. Over their last six games (five of them losses), they’ve totaled four extra-base hits, only one of them a home run.

"It's one of those things that's part of the game," infielder Amed Rosario said, via interpreter Kenny Diaz. "You're going to have highs and lows, and right now obviously we're going through the lows. But we're hopeful. We're going to stay together, and we're going to turn this thing around."

The Nationals played today’s game with Davey Martinez watching from his office while serving a controversial one-game suspension following Wednesday night’s incident with reliever Jorge López intentionally throwing at Andrew McCutchen (according to Major League Baseball’s interpretation).

So with bench coach Miguel Cairo calling the shots from the dugout, the Nationals took the field on a 47-degree afternoon and tried to set the tone by taking an early lead. That most certainly did not happen.

After a quick, 1-2-3 top of the first, it was the Pirates who jumped ahead with an early blast. Oneil Cruz, whose grand slam put Wednesday night’s game out of reach, pounced on an 0-1 slider from Williams and blasted it into the right field bleachers, high above the 21-foot-high Clemente Wall for a 1-0 lead.

Given Williams’ early season struggles – he entered with a 7.36 ERA – there was reason to worry this one might get away from the right-hander. To his credit, he seized control right back and thrived the rest of his afternoon.

"You don't let solo shots beat you. You don't let solo shots spiral out of control," he said. "It's one hit, it's one batter. You've just got to move on to the next one and make sure you string together some outs."

Though he had to pitch his way out of a couple of jams in the third and fifth innings, Williams was up to the task. He stranded a pair of runners in the third by getting McCutchen to fly out and Joey Bart to ground out. Then he stranded two runners in scoring position in the fifth thanks to back-to-back strikeouts of Cruz and Bryan Reynolds, then a popup induced off McCutchen’s bat.

It was far from a dominant effort, but it very much resembled the majority of Williams’ 2024 season: five innings of one-run ball on 90 pitches.

"I think I've been throwing pretty well this year," he said. "It's just one of those things where we have tough luck here or there, or one pitch gets out of hand. I thought we've been doing a great job of executing, albeit maybe one or two pitches a start. But today we were just able to limit the damage to one run."

And it was wasted because of a lack of any run support from a Nationals lineup that has gone ice cold on this road trip.

As was the case during Wednesday night’s loss, there weren’t even many good scoring opportunities. The Nats got back-to-back singles from Nathaniel Lowe and Dylan Crews in the second, only to leave them stranded. They finally got another man into scoring position in the seventh when Lowe managed a two-out, opposite-field double to advance Rosario to third base. But with a chance to record his first RBI of the season, Crews swung at a first-pitch changeup from Heaney and sent a lazy fly ball to right to end the inning.

"It's a long season," Cairo said. "We've got players, and we've got players that can hit, and they know they can hit. We're just going to take it one day at a time and just believe you can hit, and that you can play."

This game did remain there for the taking, thanks to some long-awaited quality relief work. Lucas Sims posted a zero in the sixth on 16 pitches, and Jose A. Ferrer recorded six outs on 18 pitches. They at least gave their teammates a chance to rally late.

But they squandered their last chance at anything when Rosario hit a sharp grounder down the third base line and watched as Ke'Bryan Hayes made a nice backhand play, stranding the tying runner 90 feet away and adding one final frustrating moment to a frustrating day at the end of a frustrating series.

"It's obviously frustrating," Rosario said. "I was hoping it would get through. But credit to him. He made a nice play for his team. We wish it was a different outcome, but unfortunately it wasn't."