Lack of production from bottom of lineup remains a concern

NEW YORK - Tonight's 3-1 loss to the Mets shouldn't have a dramatic impact on the Nationals' ultimate fortunes. They still lead the National League East by 9 1/2 games with 27 to play. Their magic number remains 18.

But the manner in which the Nats lost this game might raise some red flags and may offer some evidence of one of the club's few problem areas that could come back to haunt the team if and when they start playing in October.

It takes clutch hitting to win in the postseason, and the Nationals had none of it tonight. They went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, scoring their lone run on Anthony Rendon's sacrifice fly in the top of the first.

The Nationals have been better overall in those situations - they're batting .307 (best in the NL) with an .847 OPS (third-best in the NL) with runners in scoring position since Aug. 1 - but there remain a couple of glaring holes at the bottom of their lineup.

You don't normally think of your seventh and eighth hitters as vital cogs in a lineup, but given how much the Nationals' regular 1-through-6 batters reach base, RBI opportunities abound for the guys who follow them.

"You think about the middle of the lineup, but if those middle-of-the-lineup guys are getting on, then the seventh and eighth hitters ... those are RBI slots," manager Dusty Baker said. "They have quite a few chances to drive in some runs."

Ryan Zimmerman and Danny Espinosa are the regular seventh and eighth hitters right now, and neither is delivering in key spots with nearly enough consistency.

Though Zimmerman had hits in each of his first two at-bats tonight, his biggest opportunity came in the top of the sixth, with two on and nobody out. The veteran first baseman proceeded to tap a weak grounder back to the mound, advancing the runners but in the manner in which he would have liked.

Zimmerman is now batting .219 overall this season, .172 with runners in scoring position.

The Nationals, trailing 2-1 at the time, still had a golden opportunity to either tie the game or take the lead. But Espinosa struck out (one of four of those for the shortstop on this night), leaving him with 139 on the season.

"Same thing we talked about: Swinging too hard when you need to put the ball in play," Baker said. "So that's something that we're addressing, and we've got to keep working on."

With one last chance to convert in the sixth, pinch-hitter Ben Revere grounded out to second base. The veteran outfielder, supplanted in the everyday lineup by rookie Trea Turner, is now hitting .215 on the season.

There are other reasons the Nationals lost this game - most notably, Tanner Roark issued four walks and surrendered a key, two-out single to Curtis Granderson in the bottom of the third - and they still can stake claim to a productive lineup in the big picture - they've scored the fourth-most runs in the NL - but all is not perfect at the plate for this team.

They're almost certainly going to get to October. The question is whether they can consistently produce the one or two key hits they need each night to advance deep into October.