Nats reach new depths in blowout loss to Phillies (updated)

PHILADELPHIA – The last time the Nationals set foot inside Citizens Bank Park, Max Scherzer was ready to take the mound for the opener of a doubleheader. Trea Turner was still a member of the team, though he had just been placed into quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19. Kyle Schwarber also was still a member of the team, though he was rehabbing from a hamstring strain that derailed his early-summer power explosion.

It was July 29, 2021, and by night’s end, none of those three guys were a member of the Nationals organization anymore. Scherzer (after tossing six innings of one-run ball) and Turner were traded to the Dodgers for four prospects, and Schwarber was dealt to the Red Sox for one. Gone, too, that day were Daniel Hudson and Brad Hand.

Nearly a full calendar year later, the Nationals returned to Philadelphia tonight, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to that team that last appeared here. That much was obvious by the names on the backs of their jerseys, not to mention the final tally on the scoreboard.

During the course of a 11-0 whitewashing, the 2022 Nationals were once again exposed as the weakling of a National League East that has undergone a dramatic overall since the end of the 2019 season. The Phillies are trying to keep up with the contending Mets and Braves, and even the Marlins are hanging in there (in large part because of their dominance of the Nats).

The Nationals? They’ve now lost 18 of their last 19 division games, as ludicrous as that sounds, falling to 6-29 on the season against the NL East. (They’re 23-25 against everyone else.)

"We definitely have to play better within our division," manager Davey Martinez said. "These are guys we're going to face all the time. And we've got to come ready to play, and play a lot better."

Add tonight’s lopsided loss to the growing pile. It fit right in with so many others, from a ragged (and too brief) start to a feeble offensive showing to laborious relief as the game got out of hand.

Paolo Espino was the starter for this series opener, hoping to keep his surprisingly dominant run going, but tasked with doing so against a potent Phillies lineup. It took all of one batter to realize this would be no simple challenge.

Schwarber led off the bottom of the first as he led off so many bottom of the firsts last June for the Nationals, blasting a homer over the center field wall for an immediate 1-0 lead. To his credit, Espino would rebound quickly and retire the eight other members of the Philadelphia batting order before Schwarber dug in again in the bottom of the third.

And wouldn’t you know what the big guy did in that at-bat? He launched another drive, this one straight down the right field line, for his second homer of the night, his fourth in six games against the Nats this season and a 2-0 lead.

"I was trying to go out there and attack him the same way as I attack everybody," Espino said. "I guess he just had a great night against me tonight. But he's definitely a dangerous hitter. You don't want to leave anything in the middle for him to hit. But today, I still hit my spots, and he still was able to hit them out."

The second trip through the order wasn’t nearly as kind to Espino as the first trip was. Five of the first six batters he faced in the bottom of the fourth reached safely, two of them scoring. And when Schwarber came up to bat with the bases loaded and two out, Martinez decided not to risk letting Espino suffer the same fate again.

"As we all know, we've seen it before: You leave a ball out over the plate for him, or leave a ball up in the zone, he can hit them a long way," Martinez said of Schwarber. "That was a perfect example of that. ... As we've seen before, when he's hot like that, the home runs come in bunches for him."

Andres Machado entered, struck out Schwarber and did a little twirl as he hopped off the mound, though he would not return to pitch the fifth. That assignment went to Erasmo Ramírez, who served up a two-run homer to J.T. Realmuto to make it 6-0.

Next up was Reed Garrett, who faced nine batters, retired two of them, let five of them score and was yanked before the inning was over, his team now trailing 11-0. All told, the Nationals threw 161 pitches over the game’s first six innings.

And the last reliever to pitch tonight? That would be Alcides Escobar, who threw pitches that ranged between 39 mph and 82 mph, allowed two batters to reach base but none to score in the first relief appearance of his career.

"We tried to stay away from a lot of guys today," Martinez said. "I thought (Jordan) Weems came in and threw the ball well. Obviously, Machado came in for that one batter and threw the ball well. And then we had to use one of our position players. But I think we're going to be in good shape tomorrow."

The lineup? Well, it was missing both Juan Soto (out for the second straight day with a tight left calf muscle) and Nelson Cruz (a last-minute scratch with a stomach-related illness). Those who remained put forth the kind of performance you’d expect under the circumstances, which is to say they didn’t put up much of any performance.

For the third straight day, the Nationals were held scoreless for at least six innings. They grounded into their 12th and 13th double plays in their last six games. They’ve grounded into multiple double plays in seven of their last 11 games.

"Obviously, it's very difficult," center fielder Victor Robles said of the absences of Soto and Cruz, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "Those are two big pieces to our lineup. But that's part of the game. We can't control that part, which is health."