Tiring Nats trying not to look ahead to finish line yet

It’s only human nature to look at a calendar these days, see the word “September” in big, bold letters across the top and start thinking about the end of the 2023 season fast approaching.

Which is exactly the kind of mindset that will get a young ballclub in trouble.

“I think it’s very easy to look at the finish line and not worry about what’s at hand,” Lane Thomas said.

Were the Nationals doing that over the weekend when they were swept by the Marlins in a four-game series? Were they already counting down the days until they head home for the winter, feeling like they’ve already accomplished what they’re going to accomplish this year, no matter what still takes place the rest of the way?

The on-field results certainly lend some credence to that theory. It’s not that the Nationals got swept by Miami, or that they’ve now lost five in a row after an impressive 17-9 run through the bulk of August. It’s how they looked as they got swept.

Sloppy play in the field. An inability to throw strikes. A struggle to deliver clutch hits.

During their current five-game losing streak, the Nats have surrendered at least six runs every night. They’ve yet to score more than five runs in any game. They’ve been charged with five errors. They’ve served up eight home runs.

In many ways, the Nationals looked gassed by the end of the weekend. Which is understandable because they just completed a four-city road trip that snaked up and down the East Coast, from Williamsport, Pa., to New York to Miami to Toronto, with no off-day given before they had to take the field again Thursday night against the Marlins.

It doesn’t help that a sizeable portion of the current roster is experiencing a full major league season for the first time and is still learning everything that comes with that.

“We have some guys who have never played this much, have never played a full season in the big leagues,” manager Davey Martinez said. “We have some guys who are just now coming here. It’s a grind. But 29 other teams are doing the same thing. We’ve just got to forget about the schedule, forget about how many games we’re playing, take that day off and come back Tuesday ready to play baseball.”

The schedule-makers weren’t particularly kind to the Nationals, who just played 13 days in a row in four different cities but now have both today and Thursday off sandwiched around a two-game series with the Mets.

After that comes 17 games in a row, then the season’s final week, which includes another two-game series at the Orioles with a scheduled off-day both before and after it, followed by a three-game series in Atlanta to wrap things up.

For young players who have already set career-highs in games played, at-bats taken, and innings pitched, this can be an especially tough task, both physically and mentally.

“Physically, it’s just keeping the body right,” shortstop CJ Abrams said. “September gets a little taxing. But you just have to keep pushing. We’re almost there.”

The Nationals are almost there, but they really aren’t. They’ve still got four weeks and 24 games to go. That’s still a lot of baseball.

“If I would have any advice for them, you just have to go day by day,” Thomas said. “It’s not going to speed it up or slow it down, but just worry about that day, and you’ll look up and you’ll have a good month. Hope we all do that.”