With Soto now unavailable, how do Nats generate offense?

PHILADELPHIA - For all the agonizing over the pitching decisions made during Friday night's 4-2 loss to the Phillies, the continued lack of any sustained offense by the Nationals played just as much of a role in the club falling to 1-10 in series openers this season.

"We didn't hit," manager Davey Martinez said. "We've got to score more than two runs. (Jeremy Hellickson) kept us in the ballgame. We had a couple opportunities, but we couldn't get that big hit."

Given the injuries the Nats are dealing with at this point, there may not be a lot of reason to believe this is suddenly going to get better.

Anthony Rendon, Trea Turner and Ryan Zimmerman all already are on the injured list with various ailments. Could Juan Soto now be in danger of joining them?

Soto was out of the lineup for the third straight day with back spasms. Martinez said pregame he was hoping the 20-year-old slugger might be available to pinch-hit during the game, but it never happened, despite some obvious opportunities.

With the Nationals trailing in the top of the ninth, the pitcher's spot in the lineup came up. Martinez sent catcher Yan Gomes up to bat, not Soto. And after Gomes singled to bring the tying run to the plate, Martinez let struggling Michael A. Taylor (0-for-3 with two strikeouts) bat again, not Soto.

Taylor would strike out looking at a pitch well off the plate, his third called strikeout of the night, and he berated plate umpire Bill Miller for several seconds before Martinez raced out and pushed his angry outfielder out of the way before he said or did something to get himself in real trouble.

The larger takeaway: Soto clearly wasn't available to pinch-hit.

And now that he has missed three consecutive games, the Nationals may have no choice but to consider the IL. They can't afford to wait around like they did with Rendon last week, hoping he might come back within a day or two. If they make the move now, they can backdate it three days and Soto will be eligible to return May 11. Each day they wait from this point on adds another day to the back end of his 10-day IL stint.

Whatever happens with Soto, the Nationals still have to figure out a way to scratch together runs with a piecemeal lineup. How do they do that?

"Try not to put too much pressure on yourself," said Kurt Suzuki, who had two of the team's six hits, including a solo homer. "You take the top four hitters out of any lineup, it's going to be a tough go. It's no excuse. We're in the big leagues. Guys here are big league baseball players. We've got to go out there and execute."