In rare clunker, Nationals trail big early in loss to Mets

The Nationals hadn't been in this position in a while, trailing by a significant margin and unable to mount any kind of effective counterattack.

They hadn't trailed any game by three or more runs since Aug. 17 (in which they actually rallied from five runs down to take the lead against the Brewers before losing in extra innings). They hadn't trailed by three or more runs and not come back to at least tie things up since Aug. 3, when the Diamondbacks torched Stephen Strasburg (and Gerardo Parra and Brian Dozier) during a blowout.

So when it happened this afternoon in the opener of a key series against the Mets, it was something of a shock to the system. Down seven runs in the fourth inning? Who were these guys and what did they do with the Nationals club that had spent the last month-plus scoring early and often and cruising to victory?

Perhaps that team will show up Tuesday night when these two rivals return to action. It most certainly wasn't on display on for this Labor Day matinee, a 7-3 loss in which the home team didn't score until Asdrúbal Cabrera's three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

"They beat us today," Trea Turner said. "It's as simple as that."

After wrapping up a dominant week against last place competition, the Nationals opened a demanding closing stretch to the regular season that will see them play 24-of-27 games against opponents with winning records. This wasn't the opening they had in mind.

The high point of the afternoon - from the home team's perspective - came when Turner led off the bottom of the first with a single. Against Noah Syndergaard, who has allowed 61-of-69 runners to successfully steal off him the last two seasons, it might as well have been a leadoff double for Turner.

Except the Nationals didn't give their speedy leadoff man a chance to run until it was too late. Adam Eaton and Anthony Rendon each lined out to right field on the first pitch he saw. And so even though Turner eventually stole second, he was stranded there when Juan Soto struck out on a 98 mph fastball to end the inning.

"I tell the guys behind me all the time: If I'm stealing, or you guys get a pitch to hit, hit it," Turner said. "Because if they hit a ball in the gap, I can score. I think as long as you're swinging at the pitch you want and/or lining out - I think we had two line outs, I believe. So, for me, they got the pitches they wanted, and hit them good and it was right at them. They just got unlucky in that inning."

Eaton would wind up leaving the game, his right knee acting up again five days after it was struck by a pitch. This time, the Nationals sound more concerned, with manager Davey Martinez revealing his right fielder will be getting an MRI in search of a more definitive diagnosis.

The Nats would do nothing else of consequence at the plate against Syndergaard after the first inning. The big right-hander retired 16 batters in a row before surrendering a pinch-hit single to Andrew Stevenson in the bottom of the sixth. And by then, the game was well out of hand.

That's because the Mets lineup was all over Joe Ross from the get-go. Unable to command his sinker down in the zone, Ross was lit up for seven runs in only 3 2/3 innings, the bulk of the damage coming as his afternoon was coming to a close.

Ross reached the top of the fourth having minimized the damage to two runs. But he couldn't complete the fourth. Nor could his manager get a reliever in to replace his out-of-gas starter in time to keep the deficit reasonable.

With two outs and one on, Ross grooved a first-pitch sinker to Jeff McNeil. The ball soared to center field for a two-run homer and a 4-0 lead for the Mets.

"I feel like just rushing down the mound a little bit, getting ahead of myself," Ross said when describing his struggles with command. "The sinker gets a little flat, and I feel like I back up my slider a little bit. I wasn't really executing today, and obviously they made me pay for it."

At that point, down four runs, Austin Voth began warming in the bullpen. Voth is one of three pitchers the Nationals added to the active roster Sunday once they were allowed to expand beyond 25 players. One of those pitchers is Sean Doolittle, the closer returning from injury. The other two are starters returning from injury: Voth and Jeremy Hellickson. And given the fact starters need more time to warm up than relievers, it was clear Voth wouldn't be ready for a while.

So Ross was left to try to get out of the inning on his own, even though it was becoming more and more clear he wouldn't be able to do it. He gave up a single to Pete Alonso, then another single to Michael Conforto, then a two-run double to J.D. Davis that made this a 6-0 deficit.

Only then did Martinez walk to the mound and signal to his bullpen. Voth would enter and surrender an RBI double to Brandon Nimmo to extend the Mets' lead to 7-0. He would bounce back to pitch well after that, but the damage had already been done.

"I thought if he sinks the ball in to Davis, he's got the best chance of getting him out there," Martinez said. "I mean, he hit a ground ball. I know, in the hole. But he threw him a hanging slider. So at that point, we got Voth up and ready."

And a Nationals club that hadn't found itself in a deep hole in a long time now had to try to climb its way out of a major one.