Matt of Matt's Bats: With Nats running out of time, Williams should have pulled Scherzer early

This has been an unexpected year for the Washington Nationals. They started the year well below expectations until the Braves game on April 28 when Dan Uggla hit a three-run go-ahead home run in extras. Max Scherzer chocolate sauced him, and the Nats flew.

In late May, the Nationals were the favorites to win the division, with a 90 percent chance to make the postseason. After mediocre summer and horrible August, their chances have plummeted down to a measly 14 percent. However, that number doesn't show the recent surge of the Washington Nationals. In the last six games, they've gone 5-1, coming off a four-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves, with all four games totaling five or more runs for Washington. That's great entering a really important series against the Mets, where they really need to win the next two games to have a shot at playing in October.

Monday's 8-5 loss against the Mets was a big one. In the first, the Mets had a man on third with one out, but Scherzer was able to get two key strikeouts. In the second, Michael Conforto hit a solo home run, only to be followed by a Kelly Johnson home run later that inning. Yoenis Cespedes followed with a home run two innings later, giving the Mets an early 3-0 lead.

The Nats seemed to turn the tide in the fourth inning. With bases loaded, Wilson Ramos took advantage of a 78 mph slider from Mets starter Jon Niese and laced it over the Mets bullpen in left-center field. Grand slam!

Later that inning, Jayson Werth was about five inches from the Nats' second dinger of the day, but it bounced off the wall just short. However, Michael A. Taylor was positioned at second base and scored on the play.

The Nats led 5-4 in the fifth until the turning point of the game, a decision made by Nationals manager Matt Williams to let Scherzer hit instead of putting in a pinch hitter. Mets reliever Carlos Torres injured his leg on a Michael A. Taylor groundout and was replaced by Erik Goeddel. During the extended pitching change, Williams could have pinch hit for Scherzer with Clint Robinson, Tyler Moore, Matt den Dekker, or Danny Espinosa. Scherzer already had 90 pitches and wasn't giving his best outing. The Nats had two runners on, and it was their best scoring chance the entire rest of the game. Williams decided to stick with Scherzer, even though he was running out of gas, and Goeddel got him to ground out to end the inning on one pitch.

I understand Matt Williams' explanation after that Scherzer is their No. 1 pitcher, but that just shows how little confidence there is in the bullpen. Blake Treinen, Casey Janssen, Matt Thornton, Felipe Rivero, and Rafael Martin pitched, with three of them giving up more runs to the Mets. It was a very close and winnable game, and I think that Williams could have managed that situation better. Why didn't he bring in either Drew Storen or Jonathan Papelbon for big situations the seventh with runners on base? Those two are the main veterans in the Nationals bullpen, and even though it's not a save situation, sometimes it makes sense to use your best pitcher in the most challenging situation. If you use one, you could still have the other to close, instead of someone like A.J. Cole (who gave up nine runs on nine hits in two innings in his MLB debut earlier this year), who the Nats actually had warming up in the ninth.

But what hurts the most is the decision to leave Scherzer to hit with two men on in the fifth. Scherzer is having a good year on pitchers' standards: he's hitting .179. I would have loved to see Espinosa, who eventually came into the game on a double-switch in the eighth, get an at-bat there. Robinson has been mashing rookies all season, and recently den Dekker has been acting like the Babe Ruth in Triple-A. Moore has always proven in clutch situations, too. So there was no good reason to leave Scherzer in the game to hit.

It's disappointing seeing how the game turned out. The Nationals need to up their ante. They are running out of time, and they are five games back. They've got some hard pitchers to face in the next few days (probable starters Matt Harvey today and Jacob deGrom tomorrow). In more bad news for the Nats, Saturday's opponent in Miami may be Jose Fernandez, who is coming off the disabled list right when the Nats are in town. The Nats need to play smarter baseball to overtake the Mets, starting by winning the next two games.

Ten-year-old Matt blogs about the Nationals at Matt's Bats. Follow him on Twitter: @MattsBats. He shares his views weekly as part of MASNsports.com's initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.