Nats' bats go silent again in 2-1 loss to Reds (updated)

These Nationals have teased us before. They've had moments over the last two months when they appear to have figured things out, especially at the plate, only to fail to sustain any sense of positive momentum.

So even though they looked much better over the weekend while sweeping the Orioles, the Nats were in no way guaranteed of showing up at the park tonight and picking up where they left off.

And they most certainly did not. Barely making a peep at the plate against a Reds pitching staff that has surrendered the most runs in the National League until a bottom-of-the-ninth rally that fell short, the Nationals lost 2-1 to Cincinnati's Tyler Mahle, Tejay Antone, Amir Garrett and Lucas Sims, spoiling a quality start by Max Scherzer and opening the week on a decided sour note.

"It stinks only putting up one run when you only give up two," shortstop Trea Turner said during a postgame Zoom session with reporters. "It would've been nice to get a few more and get a win, obviously. But that's baseball, and we've got to move on to tomorrow."

Managing only three singles and two walks until Josh Bell's solo homer in the ninth, the Nats otherwise never seriously threatened against any of the Reds' four pitchers, going down quietly before a Tuesday night crowd of 8,935 that had little reason to cheer once a very special pregame ceremony involving an old friend wrapped up.

The evening began with a display of gratitude for a returning favorite, Sean Doolittle, who appeared at Nationals Park as a visitor for the first time. The popular reliever teared up as he watched a tribute video play on the scoreboard, then walked toward home plate and acknowledged the applauding crowd as he accepted gifts from manager Davey Martinez, Ryan Zimmerman and Daniel Hudson.

Doolittle also received a hero's welcome as he strolled out to the left field bullpen in the middle of the first, serenaded by fans who made a point to buy seats out there and salute the club's former closer upon his arrival.

"He's always going to be a member of the Washington Nationals," Scherzer said. "As we go through the years of celebrating our World Series run, he's going to be there, too. That was a special group that won the World Series, and he's a big part of it."

Watching from the raised bench above the left field fence, Doolittle and his Cincinnati bullpen mates had a front row seat to a pitchers' duel, one that saw their less-heralded starter outpitch a three-time Cy Young Award winner.

Not that Scherzer was bad. Not in the least. He came out dealing, striking out four of the first five batters he faced on four different pitches (fastball, slider, cutter, changeup). But then came a somewhat familiar event: an ambushed home run.

Kyle Farmer went right after Scherzer's first pitch of the third (a 94 mph fastball) and drilled it to left field for his third homer of the season and a 1-0 lead.

"The whole league's been aggressive against me," Scherzer said. "They're all swinging first pitch of the game. I know that. I didn't execute in that situation against Farmer. Tried to go fastball away, ran it back middle-in, and it's a homer. I've got to be better in that situation. I even had a feeling he was going to be swinging. That's just the way it goes. You've got to be better than that."

Three innings later, Eugenio Suárez would pull off a similar feat, though he waited three pitches before lofting a 1-1 changeup over the out-of-town scoreboard to make it 2-0 and underscore an ever-growing fact: If you're going to beat Scherzer, you're almost certainly going to have to do it with home runs.

Scherzer has now allowed 16 earned runs in 63 1/3 innings this season, good for a 2.27 ERA. Thirteen of those runs scored via homer (and one of the three that didn't scored on a fly ball Victor Robles lost in the sun at Dodger Stadium).

"We've seen other great pitchers, and that's kind of what we have to do against them," Scherzer said. "That's life in the big leagues. They're sitting there finding every which way to beat you every single time. It does not matter. As soon as a team finds a way they can attack you, the rest of the league is going to copy that. It's nothing new. This is life in the big leagues."

Scherzer typically says he doesn't worry much about one or two solo homers, figuring those alone aren't going to beat him. And most of the time, they aren't. But when your teammates can't touch an opponent, as was the case tonight vs. Mahle, suddenly those two seemingly small mistakes loom large.

Fresh off a weekend sweep of the Orioles in which their once-dormant bats produced 22 total runs, the Nationals were rendered silent by Mahle, who entered with a 4.20 ERA and exited with a 3.75 ERA after tossing 5 1/3 scoreless innings.

"We've actually been hitting the ball pretty good as of late," Martinez said. "Then you run into a guy like this who kept us off-balance all night. We missed some pitches that we probably should've hit. But he did well. The guy made his pitches. We couldn't get nothing going."

Mahle allowed only one of the first 11 batters he faced to reach base, and that was a two-out walk drawn by Bell in the bottom of the first. Bell would record his team's first hit of the night with a line drive single to center in the fourth, but he was quickly erased on a grounder off Kyle Schwarber's bat.

And that's how things proceeded for the Nats. They put five runners on base through eight innings but couldn't so much as advance any of them to second base.

Bell's one-out homer to left-center in the ninth off Garrett, and the announcement of Zimmerman as the subsequent pinch-hitter, did finally bring some energy to the park. But Zimmerman grounded out, and Starlin Castro then grounded to third off righty Lucas Sims, summoned to record the final out.

There were no other close calls. No poorly placed rockets off the bat. No drives caught at the warning track. Just a string of outs against the pitching staff that has allowed the most runs in the National League. Except for tonight.

"I didn't feel like I got too many pitches to hit in the middle of the plate, and when I did, I missed them," Turner said. "If you're not getting a lot of mistakes over the middle of the plate, it's going to be hard to hit. I don't care who's on the mound, what his name is. ...

"They pitched well. We pitched well, too. It was just a matter of them hitting one more homer than us."