Despite struggles, Baker insists lineup "is gonna hit"

It's easy to start worrying about a lineup's overall deficiencies on a night like this, when a journeyman pitcher holds it to two hits (one of them a bunt single) and doesn't let a man so much as reach scoring position after the second inning.

But the Nationals' 3-0 loss to the Phillies wasn't entirely an aberration. There have been issues with this lineup almost since opening day, some of them becoming more pronounced in recent days.

Aside from Bryce Harper, Daniel Murphy and Wilson Ramos (who is currently away from the club following the death of his grandfather), nobody else in a Nationals uniform is hitting right now. Nobody beyond those three sports a batting average better than .234. Four members of tonight's lineup currently find themselves below the Mendoza line.

Dusty Baker, though, isn't ready to read too much into that, not 20 games into a season.

"This bunch is gonna hit, you can count on that," the manager said. "These guys, they think they can hit, and they love to hit and they will hit."

The track records of several of the players involved - most notably Anthony Rendon, Ryan Zimmerman and Jayson Werth - does suggest the tide will turn and those batting averages won't remain so low.

And in the cases of Rendon and Zimmerman in particular, there is peripheral evidence to suggest each has been the victim of bad luck to some extent, based on the fact each is hitting the ball about as hard as anybody else in the sport (Rendon's average exit velocity is 92.7 mph, Zimmerman's is 95.1 mph).

But until those hard-hit balls start to fall to earth - or, better yet, clear the fence - the Nationals are going to endure through more nights like this, when they are completely shut down by Jeremy Hellickson, the same pitcher who less than two weeks ago gave up six runs in three innings to this same lineup.

"Those guys get paid, too," said Murphy, who went 1-for-3 with a double against Hellickson. "He threw the ball well. I thought he mixed his pitches well, especially against me. He was commanding both sides of the plate, bringing stuff back on lefties. Looked like he had the right-right changeup working today to (Zimmerman) and (Werth). He threw the ball well."

Maybe so, but the Nationals also played a part in Hellickson's success, at times showing too little patience and at times perhaps trying to force the issue too much in a failed attempt to make something happen on a night when very little did.

Actually, very little has happened offensively the last three times the Nationals have taken the field. They're a combined 3-for-28 with runners in scoring position, leading to back-to-back losses to the Phillies and their first lost series of the young season.

"These last two days, when the opportunities to score are few and far between, I think guys start putting pressure on themselves a little bit more," Murphy said. "So right now I think it's just about grinding at-bats out, one through nine, and trying to get traffic out there, give ourselves more opportunities to score runs."

Among the Nationals' top goals: Put Harper in a position to do the most damage possible. That's difficult, though, when leadoff man Michael A. Taylor is hitting .192 with a .231 on-base percentage. That, in turn, has put pressure on No. 2 hitter Rendon (hitting .229 with a .289 on-base percentage) to make up for Taylor's struggles and work the count in hopes of helping out the MVP in the on-deck circle.

"Mikey is more aggressive than (Denard) Span was in the past, and our other leadoff hitters," Rendon said. "But I love that about him. That's the kind of hitter he is. I don't want anything to change about him, even though he is in the leadoff spot. If he's gonna swing at the first pitch at the beginning of the game, obviously I'm not going to go up there and swing at the first pitch or being aggressive.

"Yeah, if I see a ball in the zone, then I'll try to put a good swing on it. But for the most part, if he's aggressive early in the count and doesn't get a lot of pitches for the first leadoff spot, then I'm gonna be the second leadoff guy and see a lot of pitches. It's more so seeing pitches for the guys behind me, trying to work the pitcher and get his pitch count up."

It also doesn't help Harper's cause when the guy hitting behind him (Zimmerman) is in a 2-for-15 slump and is slugging just .328.

All of this raises a popular question: Are there any lineup changes to be made, whether substitutions or simply a different batting order?

Not at this point, the manager insists.

"I don't know, I think we're 14-6," Baker said. "You don't start moving guys yet. If you move too many guys around ... if you shake up the basket and there isn't nothing happening in the basket and you shake it up, there still ain't nothing happening. It don't really matter where you're hitting if you're not hitting. And everybody can't hit in front of Harper. And some of the guys hitting in front of Harper still aren't hitting. Plus, believe it or not, hitting is not that easy."