Nats keep it close, but can't avoid sweep (updated)

As miserable as things have been lately for a Nationals team that has turned winning baseball games into an increasingly difficult task, one not insignificant truth has emerged: They've given themselves an opportunity to win just about every one of these games.

Sure, there have been a few duds along the way, and Saturday night's blowout loss to the Braves was probably the worst of them all. But most of the time, the rebuilding Nats step to the plate in the ninth inning with a chance to turn a loss into a win.

They just haven't been able to finish the fight, as it were, with any regularity.

Add today's 6-5 loss to the Braves to the growing list. A game that saw the Nationals dig themselves into an early hole after a shaky start from Paolo Espino also saw them claw their way back, get some quality relief work at last and indeed send the top of the lineup to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with a chance to pull it off.

Alas, it wasn't to be. With the tying run on base in the bottom of the ninth, Juan Soto struck out looking at a slider on the outside corner, and after Josh Bell drew a four-pitch walk, Braves third baseman Austin Riley made a nifty play on Carter Kieboom's 103-mph laser down the line to end the game. Thus did the Nats lose for the 12th time in their last 13 games, the 30th time in their last 40 games.

"You're just trying to put the ball in play there and make something happen," Kieboom said in a Zoom session with reporters afterward. "And then he was playing in clearly a no-doubles kind of situation there and just made a good play."

It felt like an appropriate ending to this game. Six of the Nationals' losses during this most recent slide, including this one, have come by one measly run. And another two have come by two runs. That hasn't made them any easier to swallow for a clubhouse that is growing tired of the nightly result, even if the process has often been sound.

"Every time we lose, it stings," manager Davey Martinez said. "But they're just playing hard. They're not giving up. Honestly, for me, it's fun to watch some of these guys get an opportunity to play. ... I'm learning a lot of things from all our young players, and I'll tell you right now, some of these guys have got heart. They're playing hard and I like it. I tell them the results are going to come. You keep playing hard, the end result will be there."

On a day that began with news Joe Ross has a partial tear of his elbow ligament that could require the second Tommy John surgery of his career, the Nationals turned to the man who was never supposed to be needed like this but has become a regular member of their rotation: Espino.

The 34-year-old journeyman turned all kinds of heads during the season's first half with his ability to excel in any role asked of him, but the bloom is starting to fade over time. Espino was tagged by the Phillies for six runs 11 days ago, then gave up a first-inning run Tuesday night in New York before a storm hit and forced the game to be suspended.

So what transpired this afternoon, when a good Braves lineup pounded Espino for five runs in four-plus innings, shouldn't have come as too big a surprise. Four of the runs came via three homers, the last two in back-to-back fashion to open the fifth to end his start. This, moments after Martinez let his pitcher bat for himself in a tie game with two on, two out and a reliever warming in the bullpen. (He said he would've sent up a pinch-hitter if the bases were loaded, but otherwise was trying to avoid going to his overtaxed relief corps that early.)

Thus did Espino depart the mound after another shaky outing, this one raising his ERA to a season-high 4.16.

"This is a game of adjustments," the right-hander said. "The more I pitch, the more they can see. I also need to work on stuff to change and not be predictable. I'm working on that. Today, I think it was all about mistakes. If I command the ball, if I throw the ball where I want, I think I'm going to have success."

The game was not lost, however, because the Nationals lineup did its part to keep things close, thanks to a pair of sustained rallies that featured some especially encouraging moments.

The Nats scored three runs in the bottom of the third off left-hander Drew Smyly, getting a leadoff single from Luis García, an RBI single from Victor Robles, the second base hit of the day from recently acquired outfielder Lane Thomas and a sacrifice fly from Soto.

Two innings later, after Espino and Gabe Klobosits dug them into a 6-3 hole, the Nationals produced a two-out rally to score a pair off reliever Jesse Chavez. Soto drew the walk that got things started, and the guys hitting behind him in the lineup made Chavez pay for it. Bell doubled off the wall in right-center, then Kieboom poked an opposite-field single to right to bring both runners home.

"It was awesome," Martinez said of Kieboom's clutch hit. "He's getting ready on time, he's staying on the ball. His swing seems a little flatter and he's getting to pitches a lot better."

Then throw in four scoreless innings of relief from Andres Machado, Mason Thompson, Ryne Harper and Kyle Finnegan, and the Nationals found themselves with a legitimate opportunity to win late.

If only they could start converting a few of these opportunities and emerging victorious at last.

"Obviously, we want to win baseball games, but we realize what's going on," Kieboom said. "We're not naive in that manner. As a whole, we're all ultimately trying to get better every single day. And every day we make a little stride to make some sort of improvement. ... We want it just as bad as everyone else does - to win these games. To come up short, it sucks. But we're better for it. As a team and as a group, we will definitely be better for it in the long run."