No Scherzer, no offense leave Nats with backs to the wall (updated)

Once the shock of the mid-afternoon news that Max Scherzer wouldn't be starting Game 5 of the World Series tonight wore off, a harsh realization must have crossed the minds of everyone wearing a Nationals uniform: If they were going to pull this off and regain control of the Fall Classic, they were going to have to score some runs. Against Gerrit Cole. And hope Joe Ross and whoever came out of the bullpen tonight could hold the Astros down enough to give them a chance.

It was an extremely narrow path to victory, and it was a path that proved too difficult to navigate. Ross, who did the best he could, still gave up a pair of two-run homers during the first four innings. The bullpen gave up three more runs late. And Cole was lights-out against everybody but Juan Soto, who produced the only run the home team would score in the final home game of the year.

Put it all together and you get a 7-1 loss and a 3-2 series deficit that now leaves the Nationals needing to win back-to-back elimination games in Houston on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in order to secure the franchise's first World Series title.

For a club that spent much of the season - and the early portion of the postseason - with its backs firmly against the wall, it's not necessarily a new predicament. But it's the most drastic one the Nats have faced to date, and it comes against the best team they've faced in 2019.

"We had our backs against the wall all year long," manager Davey Martinez said. "Nobody thought we were going to be here. We're here playing Game 6 of the World Series. We're going to fight. We're going to finish this thing."

It will require something historic for them to finish this thing. The Nationals came home Thursday after winning Games 1 and 2 at Minute Maid Park, spirits soaring and the notion of clinching on South Capitol Street percolating in the back of their minds. Three agonizing games later, they're now down in a series in which the road team has won all five games.

It's only the third time that has ever happened in 115 Fall Classics. It's never happened for a series' first six games, let alone all seven.

"It's been a crazy year for us," Ryan Zimmerman said. "So why not have every road team win every game of the World Series. Why not?"

How did it come to this, especially in the wake of those two dynamite wins in Houston last week? A complete shutdown of a once potent lineup by the Astros pitching staff, which allowed one run in each of these three games.

The Game 3 and 4 losses were defined by a lack of clutch hitting, the Nationals going 1-for-19 with runners in scoring position. Tonight's loss, before a crowd of 43,910 that included President Donald Trump, was defined by a lack of hitting of any type. The Nats took only two at-bats with runners in scoring position, both in succession in the bottom of the second, and never got another chance the rest of the way.

"It's really tough," Soto said. "But you got to see they have really good pitchers on the mound. It's going to be tough to get a hit. Nobody said it was going to be easy."

Soto provided the lone run off Cole and company tonight, taking the Astros ace deep to left-center, just as he did in Game 1. The 21-year-old is now 4-for-6 with two homers, a double and four RBIs against Cole in this series. The rest of the Nationals are 7-for-46.

To be sure, Cole was aided tonight by plate umpire Lance Barksdale, who gave the big right-hander multiple calls off the outer edge of the plate (most egregiously on a 3-2 pitch to Victor Robles that killed the Nationals' last-ditch hope for a rally in the bottom of the seventh).

"It was a very important at-bat, and I've always said we're all human," Robles said via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "We all make mistakes. I felt like he might've made a mistake on that pitch, but that's part of being human."

A few bad calls or not, the Nats had no real answer for Cole, who allowed only the one run on three hits while throwing 110 pitches over seven standout innings.

As was the case at the outset of Game 3 on Friday and Game 4 on Saturday, the crowd was revved up early on, recognizing this would be the last time the Nationals took the field at home in 2019. No roar during the lineup introduction was louder than that for Ross, and fans seemingly willed the emergency starter through a scoreless top of the first that included a double-play grounder off the dangerous Jose Altuve's bat.

"I definitely noticed them kind of roaring as I went to the field, which was pretty cool," Ross said. "I would say probably louder than any previous start than I've had. So I would say I appreciate the fan support, even from pregame through the game."

Ross, though, made a couple mistakes in the top of the second. He tried to make a tough play on Yuli Gurriel's chopper back up the middle and deflected the ball enough that Trea Turner couldn't get to it in time. The more egregious mistake came three pitches later, when Ross fell behind 2-0 to Yordan Alvarez and then left a fastball just enough over the plate to be launched into the bleachers for a 2-0 Astros lead.

"I thought it was a good pitch, a pitcher's pitch," Ross said. "But he's obviously a good hitter, lot of strength, and he hit it out to center field."

The crowd hung in there, though, and when Soto and Howie Kendrick led off the bottom of the second with back-to-back singles, everyone in the park stood and pleaded with Zimmerman and Robles to drive them in and snap this lineup out of its three-day funk.

Alas, Zimmerman struck out on a curveball nowhere near the zone. Robles then swung at an 0-2 slider just off the plate and grounded into a killer 6-4-3 double play. The rally fizzled, the vibe in the stands fizzled and everybody hunkered down for what felt likely to be another frustrating night at the park.

"Obviously, you don't get very many chances when Gerrit has that kind of stuff," Zimmerman said. "He made some good pitches, obviously against me, and then he got the groundball from Vic. Gotta give them credit sometimes."

With no run support, Ross did his best under the circumstances, but he was done in by another big blast in the fourth, albeit one that came shortly after one of several ball-strike calls tonight that didn't go the Nationals' way.

With two outs and a runner on first, Ross got ahead of Carlos Correa and then threw an 0-2 slider that appeared just to miss the outside corner. That Barksdale didn't call it a strike was no crime, but the Nationals dugout certainly didn't appreciate that Cole seemed to get that call multiple times when he was on the mound.

"I thought it was a very good pitch," catcher Yan Gomes said, choosing his words with great care. "I thought it was where we wanted it, yeah."

Regardless, Ross followed it up with a wild pitch in the dirt, then a hanging slider that Correa belted to left for a two-run homer that made it 4-0.

A distinct sense of dread now filtered through the ballpark. Given the way this middle portion of the World Series has played out, few could be blamed for feeling that way.

"We just couldn't give them anything to cheer for," reliever Sean Doolittle said. "We feel terrible about that. They waited how many years for a World Series? That's frustrating. Maybe we were pressing a little bit and trying to blow the roof off this place."

Now they'll have to try to pull off one final magic trick in a ballpark that actually is covered by a roof.