Nationals shut out again, lose fifth straight (updated)

The Nationals knew their 2020 lineup wasn't going to resemble their 2019 championship bunch. Not with Anthony Rendon moving to Anaheim and Ryan Zimmerman watching this season at home with his growing family.

But Davey Martinez and Mike Rizzo firmly believed this lineup was capable of producing in different ways. They would be able to manufacture runs. Make contact. Run a bit. Drive in teammates with two outs.

Thirty-four games into this abridged 60-game season, that's just not proving true. Despite out-of-this-world performances from Trea Turner and Juan Soto, the Nationals aren't getting anywhere close to enough production from the rest of their lineup. And on nights when their dynamic one-two combo isn't hitting, as was the case during tonight's 3-0 loss to the Phillies, there's really no hope.

"It's not easy to play with those guys out," said Asdrúbal Cabrera, who has been forced to remain in the cleanup spot despite a 13-for-76 slump that has reduced his batting average .341 from .233. "But it is what it is. We have to be good players, too."

Not enough of the remaining Nationals hitters are hitting like good players right now. With Max Scherzer less than perfect on the mound tonight, the Nationals needed to generate some kind of offense against Zack Wheeler. They did not, and in the process were shut out for the second consecutive night.

Wheeler tossed 6 2/3 innings of three-hit ball, pulled only because his pitch count got up to 109. The Nats had no more success against the Phillies' revamped bullpen, finishing with four hits for the second straight night and putting together three weak at-bats in their only opportunities with runners in scoring position.

"The frustration shows when we have an opportunity, a chance to do something," manager Davey Martinez said during his postgame Zoom session with reporters. "They all want to do it. They all want to be the guy. ... Everybody's trying to hit that five-run homer. I just want them to get on base for the next guy."

They're not hitting any homers right now, five-run or solo. This is the first time the Nationals have been shut out in back-to-back games since Aug. 23-25, 2018, when they actually were held scoreless in three straight by the Phillies and Mets. Two of those games were started by Wheeler and Aaron Nola, who won Tuesday night's contest.

As was the case with Nola on the mound, the Nationals knew they were going to need a better-than-good outing from their own starter against Wheeler to give themselves a chance. Scherzer's night (three runs in six innings) certainly wasn't bad. But given the state of the Nats lineup right now, that wasn't nearly good enough.

Even when effective this season, Scherzer hasn't been efficient. He's running into long at-bats and failing to put away hitters at the exceptionally high rate he previously had. To wit: Despite opening today's game with three scoreless innings and only three baserunners, his pitch count was already up to 50.

Scherzer is walking batters more than ever, as well. He issued three free passes tonight, two to J.T. Realmuto, and that raised his season rate to 3.3 walks per nine innings, his highest since his rookie season in Arizona and much higher than the rate of 2.0 per nine innings he posted in his first five seasons in D.C.

"I'm really trying to focus on location, but sometimes I get caught nibbling just a little bit too much when I should be aggressive," he said. "So when you get into certain counts and certain pitch locations and types, there's just too many times right now where I'm nibbling and I'm just missing by a little bit instead of being a little bit more aggressive."

Tonight, the walks came back to haunt Scherzer. After gifting a base to both Realmuto and Jean Segura in the bottom of the fourth, he watched them both come around to score on Neil Walker's broken-bat single to center. It wasn't the hit, which left Walker's bat at 69.3 mph, that beat him. It was the two walks that preceded it.

"You hear pitchers all the time complaining: 'Oh, I gave up a broken-bat base hit for a couple runs. They got so lucky, or whatever,'" Scherzer said. "You've got to be accountable to yourself. You've got to be accountable to what you have control over. Yeah, he hit a broken-bat base hit. But guess what? I walked two guys. You almost kind of deserve it in that situation."

The Phillies' third run seemed to catch Scherzer by surprise. He threw a 1-1 curveball to Jay Bruce well outside, then watched as the big lefty drove it the other way and over the fence for a leadoff homer in the bottom of the sixth.

When that inning ended with his pitch count at 108, Scherzer retreated to the dugout, was informed by pitching coach Paul Menhart he was done for the night and slammed his glove on the bench.

Was Scherzer upset he wasn't getting the chance to return for the seventh? Was he upset about the manner in which he gave up those three runs? Or was he upset that, as things currently stand, it will require nothing short of perfection from the Nationals ace to overcome his team's tepid lineup?

"Look, tensions are high. You want to go out there and win," Scherzer said. "As a starting pitcher, you want to pitch deep into the game and be winning the game. We're in a losing streak, and you want to be the stopper. I wasn't, and that's frustrating."