Gray labors, lineup falters again in another loss (updated)

At his best, Josiah Gray is really good. And last week’s dominating, 11-strikeout showing in Philadelphia was evidence of that.

At his worst, though, Gray really struggles. And today’s 6-4 loss to the Mariners, in which the young right-hander displayed virtually no semblance of fastball command and dug the Nationals into an early hole, was evidence of that.

Starting the front end of a day-night doubleheader, Gray served up three homers to Seattle batters, the most damaging of them Eugenio Suárez’s three-run blast in the top of the first, this coming shortly after he walked two batters while struggling with obvious fastball mechanics issues.

Combine that poor pitching performance with another weak offensive performance – at least until Juan Soto made things interesting with two outs in the bottom of the ninth – and the Nats lost for the 11th time in 12 games while the Mariners extended their winning streak to nine games.

The lack of offensive punch has been painful to watch, even with Soto's three-run, opposite-field homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth today. That blast did prevent the Nationals from being held to three or fewer runs for the 10th time in 11 games. But it still wasn't enough to overcome earlier woes at the plate (or on the bases, from Soto himself, as he fully acknowledged after the game).

"At the end of the day, it feels more terrible when I hit the ball," he said of his ninth-inning homer, referencing his seventh-inning baserunning blunder. "Because the things that happened on the bases and everything, you can see how close the game (would) be."

First things first, though. Gray's early struggles set the tone for the afternoon.

It took no time at all this afternoon to realize Gray was off. He opened his start with four consecutive fastballs well out of the zone to J.P. Crawford, each of them high and away from the left-handed batter, including one that sailed to the backstop. The issue is mechanical: Gray at times lands with his left foot pointed toward the first base dugout, which leaves his shoulders too far open and causes his fastball to tail well to his arm side.

It’s something the Nationals believe can be addressed, but they believe it’s best addressed during the offseason. So in the meantime, they just have to hope he can find a way to get through these starts with less-than-ideal mechanics.

"He can correct it, and he's done it in the past," manager Davey Martinez said. "Today, it was just unusual for him not to stay on his legs. So when that happens, he was getting underneath the ball, and everything was just sailing away from him."

Gray wasn’t able to get through the first inning of this one without suffering significant damage. He issued another walk, this time to Carlos Santana, then was burned by the one fastball he finally threw over the plate and served up a three-run homer to Suárez.

"I just couldn't get my feet underneath me as much as I'd like to," Gray said. "Those two walks obviously came back to hurt me there against Suárez. But fastball command wasn't great today early on, and Suárez put a good swing on that ball. Tough first inning, obviously."

Recognizing that bread-and-butter pitch couldn’t be counted on today, Gray mostly ditched it after that and threw mostly sliders and curveballs for a good stretch of time. The unconventional approach did work to some extent; he struck out five of the next nine batters he faced following the Suárez homer.

"It's more so just competing at that point," he said. "Trying not to worry about mechanics or anything like that. Just trying to execute pitches and compete and give the team some length. Obviously with runs scoring in the first, you just step back to that team mentality and give the guys some length."

But there was still more damage to come in the fourth. Jesse Winker drove a slider over the plate to right-center for a leadoff homer. Two batters later, Gray tried to sneak his first changeup of the afternoon past Adam Frazier and watched as the ball soared into the right field bullpen for another solo homer.

That made three home runs surrendered by Gray today, 21 in total this season, second-most in the majors. And though he did finish strong, retiring the side in the fifth, this 97-pitch start could not be considered a success, certainly not on the heels of his 11-strikeout performance last week in Philadelphia.

"We definitely knew there were going to be some ups and downs," Martinez said. "And there's going to be a whole lot of teaching moments. But one thing I can say about JoJo is that he's been great. He's been awesome. He wants feedback after every time he pitches. ... He's just a great kid to work with."

It mattered not much how the Nationals pitched today, though, because their lineup yet again put forth a feeble showing, especially when presented with opportunities to actually score runs. There were prime opportunities to do just that in the third, fifth, sixth and seventh innings, and they managed to push across a total of one run that entire time (not even via hit).

With two on and two out in the third, Soto tapped out meekly to the pitcher. With the bases loaded and nobody out in the fifth, they got a sacrifice lineout from Luis García (once again batting leadoff as Martinez tries to do something to generate some offense) but then saw Josh Bell and Nelson Cruz ground out (sandwiched around an intentional walk of Soto) to spoil that golden chance. With runners on second and third and one out in the sixth, they saw Maikel Franco pop out to short and Lane Thomas to center.

"Once again, we fall behind early, and then everybody's trying to do too much," Martinez said. "We just need to relax and do the little things. Just try to stay up the middle. Don't try to drive in three or four, just drive in one. Let's go with that first."

And then there was the bottom of the seventh, in which Soto drew a two-out walk and Cruz actually produced his first extra-base hit in 12 games (a soft liner just fair behind first base). Cruz had to hustle to beat Frazier’s throw to second to notch his double, but as that was happening Soto inexplicably rounded third and thought he might score. He did not score. He only got himself caught up between third and home, and eventually was tagged out to end the inning in the latest example of poor baserunning by the Nationals.

"I just think he'll probably stick with Nelson, tagging him," Soto said of the play. "I was trying to look for an advantage there. But he came up really quick and just ran at me."