Offense disappears for Nats in 5-0 shutout

The Nationals team charter may have misplaced the team's bats somewhere on the 924-mile trip back to D.C. from St. Petersburg, Fla. A day after banging out a team-record 23 hits and pouring in a season-high 16 runs, the Nationals managed to squeeze out just two singles while being shut out 5-0.

"It happens," Nationals manager Matt Williams said. "If I had the formula ... if anybody had that formula, we'd certainly do something about it. We'd love to get 23 hits every day and score a whole bunch of runs. Unfortunately the way baseball is, that doesn't happen."

"So that's why we play 162. That's why there is another one tomorrow and we have to be ready for that. So there's no formula for it. I wish I had it. I don't have the answer to that question other than you never know what might happen tomorrow. It may be another 23. You never know."

Rays manager Kevin Cash went with an unorthodox approach of beginning the game with reliever Steve Geltz before replacing him with the originally scheduled starter, right-hander Matt Andriese. In all, Cash ended up using five pitchers and the Nats couldn't figure out any of them.

"On a daily basis, we face multiple pitchers," Ian Desmond said. "It doesn't matter if it's the first inning or between the sixth and ninth. It doesn't matter. That didn't have any effect. They all gotta throw the ball over the plate. Our job is to hit it, but we weren't able to scratch anything today."

Desmond and Bryce Harper collected the season-low two hits for the Nats, who never had a baserunner reach third base all night.

As poor as the offense was, Jordan Zimmermann kept the Nationals in striking distance for much of the game. He held the Rays scoreless through the first four frames until right fielder Steven Souza Jr. and catcher Curt Casali both blasted solo homers in the fifth.

"I thought it was good," Zimmermann said on the outing. "A couple of solo home runs ... I can live with that. Just two mistakes to those two guys. They're powerful guys that are gonna make you pay."

A tailor-made double play grounder to Desmond should've ended the sixth, but the shortstop booted it for his 15th error and Zimmermann was charged with a third run.

Zimmermann surrendered three runs on eight hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. The right-hander indicated that he didn't change anything after getting tagged for six runs in just 3 1/3 innings in last Friday's loss to the Brewers.

"Just getting back out there and throwing the ball," Zimmermann said. "Milwaukee was just terrible. I was all over the place. I couldn't command anything. Tonight was a lot better. Slider was really, really good. Fastball command was right where I wanted it."

The Nats only trailed 3-0 when Blake Treinen took the hill to start the eighth. But with the rain falling steadily, Treinen fielded a two-out bunt from Souza and then threw wildly to first. The throwing error allowed David DeJesus to come around to score from first. But it got much worse as Bryce Harper backed up the play and then launched a throw to the backstop. The bizarre play resulted in Souza scoring on a play that began with a bunt, giving the Rays a 5-0 lead.

"I think if Blake throws it on the bag, he's got it," Williams said. "He just threw it high. Of course, it's raining like cats and dogs and other creatures. Slick ball."

Doug Fister will return to the mound for Thursday's series finale.