The primary object of the great game of baseball is to score runs. You can’t win games without doing that.
And the Nationals are being made all too aware of that here in the season’s final week.
For the third straight game, they were shut out, this time in a 3-0 loss to the Royals. They have not scored a run in their last 31 innings.
The last member of the Nationals to cross the plate? Joey Gallo, via his three-run homer in the top of the sixth Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Gallo, as a matter of fact, has driven in six of the team’s last nine runs.
Not depressing enough? How about this one: The Nats have been held to zero or one run in seven of their last nine games.
It’s actually not the first time the team has ever been shut out in three straight games. It happened once before in the club’s two decades in D.C.: Aug. 23-25, 2018 when a lineup that featured Trea Turner, Juan Soto, Anthony Rendon and Bryce Harper failed to score once against the Phillies and twice against the Mets late in a disappointing season.
Tonight’s loss was nearly a carbon copy of Tuesday night’s series opener, right down to the rookie left-hander making his final start of the season for the Nationals. Mitchell Parker wrapped up his year with five scoreless innings the previous night. DJ Herz wrapped up his campaign with five innings of one-run ball tonight.
Herz wasn’t quite in peak form. He struck out only three, and he issued three walks, elevating his pitch count to some extent. But he minimized the damage, the lone run scoring on his watch coming via a third inning walk and two singles.
As was the case throughout the season’s second half, Davey Martinez didn’t let Herz approach the 100-pitch mark. He was pulled after 81 pitches across five innings, congratulated in the dugout for one more job well done in a season that included plenty of jobs well done.
A touted-but-erratic prospect when the Nationals acquired him from the Cubs last summer for Jeimer Candelario, Herz earned his way to the big leagues with some key adjustments at Triple-A Rochester. He made his debut June 4 against the Mets, and two starts later he struck out 13 while allowing only one hit in six brilliant innings against the Marlins.
Herz had a few duds along the way, but he also authored a few more gems. And when it was all said and done, he was the owner of a 4.16 ERA, 1.263 WHIP and 106 strikeouts in 88 2/3 innings across 19 big league starts.
He also was the owner of only four major league wins, a product in part of the lack of run support he and the rest of the Nationals rotation received from their teammates. And the same was true tonight.
The Nats barely put up a fight at the plate against Kansas City, which had to turn to its bullpen early after starter Michael Lorenzen didn’t make it out of the third inning in his first outing back from a hamstring strain.
It made little difference when the Royals went to their bullpen. The Nationals did nothing against left-hander Daniel Lynch IV, nor did they get to fellow lefty Angel Zerpa. By the time they completed the fifth tonight, they had seen their streak of consecutive scoreless innings rise to 27.
What’s been the problem?
“Late. Just being late,” manager Davey Martinez said of his hitters’ timing. “We’ve got to be on time. We’ve got to start hitting the ball out in front a little bit better. We’re just … all of a sudden, we just got really late.”
That fact may never have been more evident than it was in the bottom of the seventh tonight. With a chance to finally get something going – two on, two out – Dylan Crews got himself into a 2-0 count and then got a fastball over the plate from right-hander John Schreiber. He made good contact (exit velocity: 102.2 mph) and hit the ball far (345 feet), but he hit it to the warning track in right field, where it was caught by Tommy Pham to end the inning and lower Crews’ batting average to .190, his OPS to .566.
The Nats needed something there, because the deficit grew to 3-0 when reliever Eduardo Salazar gave up three straight hits to open the sixth, the first two runners coming around to score and increase the Royals’ lead. The way the home team has been swinging the bat, that felt insurmountable.