Nats can't dig out of Ross' early hole, win streak ends (updated)

The Nationals hoped Joe Ross would take the mound at 1:05 p.m. today and set a good tone for the 14 innings of baseball that were guaranteed to follow. Ross' performance in the opener of a day-night doubleheader against the Mets would go a long toward determining the course of the rest of this long Saturday at the park.

So it was undeniably discouraging when Ross dug his team into a two-run hole only two batters into this one. And in the process set a negative tone for what was still to come.

Unable to keep Francisco Lindor off the bases three times - and unable to keep him in the park twice - Ross was primarily responsible for the Nationals' 5-1 loss to New York on a muggy afternoon on South Capitol Street.

"Just got beat by one guy," the right-hander said in his postgame Zoom session with reporters. "It is what it is."

Another tepid performance from the Nats lineup (1-for-10 with runners in scoring position) against a less-accomplished opposing pitcher (David Peterson) didn't help matters and ultimately snapped their five-game winning streak. But the story of this game began, as it so often does, with their own starting pitcher.

Davey Martinez has preached the importance of scoring first on any given night all season long, and that's all the more important in these doubleheader games, which start in the equivalent of the top of the third. So the first two batters of this game didn't exactly go the way the manager would've preferred.

A leadoff single by Jonathan Villar through the left side of the shifted infield got things started for the Mets. And when Ross promptly fell behind 2-0 in the count to Lindor, the pressure was on to make a good pitch. He did not. His 94 mph sinker was up and over the plate, and Lindor put a charge in it, driving the ball into the red seats behind the left-center field wall.

The pro-Mets portion of the crowd cheered as Lindor danced around the bases, having snapped his team's 21-inning scoreless streak with a bang. Ross stood on the mound, now needing to right his ship and keep the deficit at 2-0.

"He falls behind on a pretty good hitter," Martinez said. "(Lindor) saw the ball pretty well off Joe tonight."

The right-hander did respond by retiring six straight batters, four in a row via strikeout. But then came another blip in the top of the third. It began when he plunked Peterson, the opposing pitcher, on the foot. A sacrifice bunt from Villar would move him into scoring position. And Lindor would then poke a single to right-center, giving the star shortstop three RBIs in two at-bats and his team a 3-0 lead.

Given those results, you'd think the odds of Ross being allowed to face Lindor a third time were minimal. And it wouldn't have happened had the Nationals been able to bring one more batter to the plate in the bottom of the fourth. Alas, Alex Avila struck out and Victor Robles lined out to right to leave Josh Harrison stranded in scoring position and to leave the pitcher's spot now due to lead off the next inning.

So Martinez let Ross retake the mound for the fifth, his pitch count only at 52 but with the specter of the top of the Mets lineup coming up soon. In a nine-inning game, it would've been the conventional move. In a seven-inning game, it felt dangerous.

"At some point, you've got to have trust in your pitcher," Martinez said. "And he's got to understand: He's faced him before. He's got to figure out how to get him out. We're still down at that moment. We've got another game to play. We've got another game, nine innings, tomorrow."

Martinez's faith in his starter backfired. After allowing a leadoff double to Peterson, Ross got Villar to ground out. But then came Lindor. And as the home bullpen sat idle, Ross fell behind in the count 2-1, then tried to get a slider down and in on Lindor. He didn't get it down and in enough. The ball wound up in the second deck in right field, and Lindor coasted around the bases for the second time today, having single-handedly outscored the Nationals 5-0.

"I was just not really in good pitcher's counts," Ross said of his three encounters with Lindor. "I tried to throw a strike, and then also it's not the best-located pitch to a lefty."

The Nationals would get one run across before the game was over, getting a much-needed Trea Turner double to the gap and a Juan Soto RBI single off a lefty (Aaron Loup) in succession. But that was the extent of the Nationals' offensive output in the first half of the doubleheader.

They can only hope for a better showing - both at the plate and on the mound - in the nightcap.

"We need that to happen," Martinez said of the brief spark provided by Turner and Soto. "Trea hit the ball well today. Soto, off a tough lefty, worked a good at-bat and got a base hit and drove in our only run. As I've said always: Those two guys are a big part of our offense. When they get on base, usually we do some damage. Trea got on, Juan drove him in. We had something going, we just couldn't make anything happen."