Nats melt down late to cap doubleheader sweep (updated)

At the end of a miserable day and night - weather-wise and baseball-wise - there really aren't any silver linings for the Nationals to hang their caps on. Swept by the Brewers over the course of 14 innings of poorly executed baseball, they look very much like the last-place team they are this Memorial Day weekend.

Yes, there are four months of baseball still to go. And if any franchise has proven how much can change in four months, this is it.

But what reasons for optimism are the Nationals providing right now? They aren't scoring runs with any consistency. They aren't getting quality starts consistently from any member of their rotation who isn't named Max Scherzer. And during tonight's 6-2 loss to Milwaukee, they didn't even get the quality relief pitching, defense or baserunning that has helped keep them afloat while they sort out their other issues.

If this happened in a vacuum tonight, it wouldn't have felt all that significant. But it happened at the end of a day that also saw the Nationals drop the opener of today's doubleheader, 4-1. And it happened two days after they lost their previous doubleheader-shortened game to the Reds, leaving them an atrocious 0-5 in seven-inning games this season.

"I told them all: This is going to turn. I know it's going to turn," manager Davey Martinez said during his postgame Zoom session with reporters. "We've been here before, and it turned and it got really good. We've got the players to do that. I believe in that."

The Nats are now 21-27 overall, last in the National League East, 5 1/2 games behind the first-place Mets. The rest of the division hasn't taken off as anticipated, but that's the only saving grace for the cellar dwellers who have shown little reason to believe a turnaround is imminent.

"I think this is a way different year than 2019, for many reasons, not good or bad," shortstop Trea Turner said. "For me, I would imagine we were farther back in the division in 2019 than we are now. It's all about perspective. We hate the way we're playing. We want to play better. We know we can play better. But it's all about perspective and how you want to approach tomorrow. Because what we've done so far isn't going to help us tomorrow. We've got to move on and start a streak of winning."

They actually were in decent position to win tonight and at least salvage one game at the end of a cold and rainy Saturday, up 2-1 heading to the fifth inning of this seven-inning contest. Then the wheels fell off.

Wander Suero entered from the bullpen to replace Jon Lester and gave up three straight hits, departing with the game now tied (though with one out, thanks to a nifty play by Turner, who offered a shovel pass to third base to catch Kolten Wong rounding the bag). Daniel Hudson did do his thing, inducing an inning-ending double play on his first pitch, to get out of the inning without any more runners crossing the plate, but then the team's best reliever proved human when he re-took the mound for the sixth.

With two walks, an RBI double, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly, Hudson gave the Brewers the lead. And when Sam Clay couldn't stop the bleeding in relief, Hudson was charged with three runs and saw his ERA skyrocket from 1.00 to 2.33 over the course of one torturous inning.

"I think I jinxed our bullpen today by saying they've been pitching really well," Martinez said. "But they have been pitching well. They've been phenomenal."

Having managed one run on six hits and nine total bases over their last two games (14 innings in all), the Nationals entered this one hoping to somehow get on the board first and finally put pressure on the opposition. They did it in the bottom of the third, thanks to the most productive hitter on the team. A guy who doesn't play every day.

Ryan Zimmerman did get the start tonight against left-hander Brett Anderson, and for good reason. The 36-year-old has been mashing lefties all season, and he did so again tonight with doubles in each of his first two at-bats, leaving him with a cool .389 batting average vs. southpaws in 2021.

Zimmerman's second double tonight, a shot down the right field line on a 2-2 changeup from Anderson, brought home Turner and gave the Nationals a 1-0 lead. It would be short-lived.

Lester, who made it through his first three innings unscathed despite requiring 54 pitches to do it, succumbed in the fourth on Lorenzo Cain's leadoff double and Luis Urías' RBI single. By the time the inning ended, Lester's pitch count was up to 74, and his night was over.

"It was obviously a close game, and as a baseball player you understand the move that needed to be made," Lester said. "We needed some runs there, and obviously my bat isn't what you want up there when you need runs. It sucks as far as the work you put in going into a start and only going four. But at the end of the day, you have to sit back and realize what the manager is trying to do to make the best decision for our team."

The Nats did re-take the lead in the bottom of the fourth with a rally that included only one actual hit and a bunch of other things that managed to get the runner home. Yan Gomes' one-out single got things started, then Jordy Mercer reached on an error by Urías on a ground ball that should've led to an inning-ending double play.

Josh Bell, pinch-hitting for Lester, drew a walk to load the bases for Turner, who brought the crowd to its feet for this potential bust-out moment. By now, though, you know the Nationals don't really bust out much. They have to grind for every run. So it was that they scored the go-ahead run on another ground ball that could've resulted in a double play but got past shortstop Willy Adames and rolled into shallow center field.

Gomes scored easily from third, and the assumption was that Mercer would be right behind him. But third base coach Bob Henley, breaking from usual form, put up the stop sign, so Mercer held up at third. Just one problem: Bell rounded second and kept going, assuming Mercer had run in front of him. He got himself into a rundown, and that produced the second out of the inning.

"(Bell) saw the ball one way, and Bobby - with the angle he had - saw the ball a different way," Martinez said. "When you've got your middle of the lineup coming up, you don't want to run into outs. I think Josh Bell just saw the ball, put his head down and started going. At that moment, you've got to look up, look for the runner in front of you."

Even so, there was another golden opportunity for the Nationals when the Brewers intentionally walked slumping Juan Soto to load the bases for the red-hot Zimmerman. Who hit the pitch he saw from Brad Boxberger on the screws, but close enough to Cain for the Milwaukee center fielder to track it down and end the inning.

After all that, the Nationals led 2-1. They could've led by more. And in the end, they needed a bigger lead to win this game.

"When Zim hits a ball like that, what more can you do, obviously," Turner said. "Unfortunate, but it is what it is. And that's on us to decide good and bad and what we want to do going forward."