Nats swept out of New York with shutout loss as slide continues (Rutledge starting Friday)

NEW YORK – The Nationals entered Thursday’s matinee finale in Queens needing a win against the Mets to avoid the three-game sweep. More importantly, they needed a win to slow down their two-week slide before the finale series of the first half.

It’s been a mostly positive first half of the season for the Nationals, who have surpassed some preseason expectations, thanks in large part to some impressive performances by their young players.

They reached .500 in late April for the first time since July 2021. And they hovered around that mark for the next couple of months, sometimes even slipping into a wild card spot. But starting with a three-game sweep in San Diego in late June, the Nats have started going in the opposite direction, losing 12 of their last 16 entering today’s game.

Make that now losers of 13 of their last 17 games and five straight to fall 10 games under .500 after a 7-0 shutout loss to the Mets in front of an announced crowd of 25,710 at Citi Field.

The Nationals offense continues to slog through these weeks leading up to the All-Star break. They scored too late in Tuesday’s loss. They scored two early Wednesday, but none after that. And they didn’t score at all today.

“Just no offense. We had our chances, we just couldn't score any runs," manager Davey Martinez said after the game. "The at-bats just gotta get better with guys in scoring position. We talked about it yesterday. I always say that when you got a guy on second or third base with less than two outs, the pressure is on the pitcher. I think we're just pressing a little bit. I know we're young, but we're just pressing just too much and just trying to make things happen, not just staying in the zone. But we got to get better at it. We gotta get better.”

David Peterson became the latest Mets pitcher to hold the Nats lineup in check twice over the last week. The lefty was charged with two runs on seven hits in 6 ⅓ innings against the Nats on July 1. Today the Nats did even less against him.

Peterson finished six shutout innings with four hits, three walks and five strikeouts, even though the Nats had two good chances to score on him early.

Lane Thomas, back in his usual No. 2 spot in the order with a lefty on the mound, singled in the first, advanced to second on a fielder’s choice and moved to third when Peterson’s pickoff attempt went into center field. But with only one out, the Nats couldn’t move Thomas 90 feet to plate the game’s first run.

Juan Yepez and Luis García Jr. led off the second with back-to-back hits to put runners on the corners. But Trey Lipscomb (after getting ahead 3-0), Jacob Young and CJ Abrams all struck out to end the inning without scoring.

Peterson only allowed four baserunners over his next four frames, with only one getting past first base.

The Nats did load the bases in the eighth, but came up empty. They loaded them again in the ninth, but came up empty again. They went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left a total of 13 runners on base.

“We're getting guys on some innings, but we're struggling to bring them in sometimes," said James Wood. "Just got to be a little bit better in those situations and work a little better at-bats. We need to get some more guys on base.”

Wood went 1-for-5 with a single in the eighth inning. Baseball's top prospect now finds himself in a 2-for-16 slump over his last four games with a lot more ground balls than balls hit in the air.

“I just think it'll be something that'll even out," he said. "I'm just trying to be on time when I go up there and just trying to hit something hard. After I hit something hard, then maybe we can worry about where it's going.”

Jose Quintana, Luis Severino and Peterson combined to hold the Nats to two runs over 19 ⅓ innings (0.93 ERA) as starters in this series.

The Nationals starters, however, didn’t hold up their end of the bargain either, which they have done a lot this season.

MacKenzie Gore attempted to be the stopper today and seemed to be on his way in doing so. The young left-hander only surrendered one walk and one double through his first four innings on 70 pitches. But similar to veteran left-hander Patrick Corbin’s sixth inning last night, it all fell apart in the fifth.

After a leadoff double, Gore got the next two outs to set himself up to get out of the inning without any harm done. But after getting ahead 0-2 to Jeff McNeil, Gore threw a sixth-pitch sweeper that could have been strike three at the bottom of the zone. Instead, it was called ball three and Gore eventually walked McNeil to put a second runner on base.

Francisco Lindor followed with a five-pitch walk to load the bases for Brandon Nimmo, who entered today having homered in three straight games. Nimmo continued to be a Nats-killer this week by hitting the second pitch from Gore – a 97 mph fastball right down the middle – for a bases-clearing double.

“Yeah, they didn't get a hit until the fourth. But these big outings, they all got something," Gore said. "The same thing keeps happening: I keep walking guys in one inning. I'm not pitching well. I gotta be better. … I just gotta be better. I have not been pitching well and if I don't clean up, we're gonna keep having these tough conversations. Or we can do what we were doing earlier in the year and do what we're supposed to do.”

And as it was with Corbin last night, that was enough for Martinez, who came out to pull his southpaw from the game. Dylan Floro entered from the bullpen and surrendered an RBI single to J.D. Martinez on the first pitch. Wood did make a strong throw home from left field, but Nimmo slid under it just in time.

Pete Alonso drove in the fifth run of the inning, but Wood threw him out at second trying to stretch it into a double, leaving the Nats down 5-0 after the fifth.

“I thought he threw the ball really good the first (three innings)," Martinez said of Gore. "In the fourth inning, he got in trouble. But his pitch count got up there. … Next thing you know, he's up there in the 90s in four innings. But he's got the stuff. His stuff is electric. So we just gotta get him to understand: Keep working ahead, keep working ahead.”

Gore was charged with three hits, four runs, three walks and four strikeouts in 4 ⅔ innings on 95 pitches, 59 strikes. He finishes the first half 6-8 with a 4.01 ERA, 1.429 WHIP, 10.58 strikeouts per nine innings and 3.38 walks per nine in 98 ⅔ innings over 19 starts. His ERA was as low as 2.91 at the end of June, but he's pitched to a 5.63 ERA over his last eight outings.

“A very frustrating end to it," Gore said, looking back at his first half. "But look, there was some good. For as bad as this last month has been, it still was not, as a whole, as terrible. But I'm capable of doing much better than what I just put together in the first half. We still got starts left. A lot of baseball left. But I think it was a very frustrating first half at times.”

Jake Irvin, Corbin and Gore combined to give up 14 runs in 15 ⅔ innings (8.04 ERA) as starters in this series.

Needing work after some time off, Hunter Harvey, Robert Garcia and Kyle Finnegan all followed out of the bullpen, with the closer giving up two runs in the eighth.

The pitching staff may deserve the benefit of the doubt, given its overall performance this season. But the offense continues to not produce enough to win ballgames. The Nats only scored seven runs this series, and only 10 over this five-game losing streak.

“I feel like our starters have been giving us a good chance," Wood said. "You want to try and help those guys out. But it's just something that we're trying to be a lot better with going forward.”

There are three games in Milwaukee remaining before the All-Star break to try to end this first half on a high note.

“It's frustrating. This is frustrating for all of us," Gore said. "It's a tough situation right now. We got to figure out a way to flush this. We got three more games to finish strong and then get to the break.”

“We got to get better," Martinez said. "The whole team is in a funk right now when it comes to hitting. We're hitting, but we're not driving in runs. And the name of the game is to drive in runs. So hopefully, we just had a bad couple of days. Come back tomorrow in Milwaukee and see if we can score some runs.”

* Jackson Rutledge will start tomorrow's game in Milwaukee, per Martinez. The former first-round pick gave up a run in one inning of relief in the second game of a doubleheader against the White Sox in Chicago on May 14. He's 4-5 with a 6.66 ERA and 1.647 WHIP in 16 starts with Triple-A Rochester.

No corresponding roster move has been announced yet.