Offensive woes on display again in shutout loss (updated)

There's no mystery surrounding the Nationals right now. Nobody has to dig deep into the analytics trying to figure out why they're not winning enough games. The answer is right there for everyone to see, young and old, expert and novice, old school and new school.

They aren't hitting. At all.

Tonight's 3-0, seven-inning loss to the Reds in the nightcap of a pseudo-doubleheader necessitated by the suspension of Wednesday night's game due to rain would have been alarming if not for the fact we've all seen this game this season. Countless times.

The Nationals got a decent performance from their starter, though one that included one or two costly mistakes. But they needed that starter (and all subsequent relievers who entered in his stead) to be perfect, because their lineup was rendered totally helpless by the opponent.

"When a guy's on like that, you've got to be ready early in the count, and get ready to hit a fastball," manager Davey Martinez said in his postgame Zoom session with reporters. "We're really good at hitting fastballs. When they throw them, whether it's one or two per at-bat, you've got to be ready to hit them. And we're taking them for strikes."

In this case, the opponent was Sonny Gray, who tossed six innings in which the Nats managed only two singles and a walk and hit only three fair balls that reached the outfield. Lucas Sims would then close it out with a scoreless seventh, leaving the crowd of 9,020 to head home early and without having had much of any reason to cheer.

Thing is, this was practically a carbon copy of Tuesday's 2-1 loss in the series opener. Which was a carbon copy of so many others that preceded it.

The Nationals gave up three or fewer runs in every game of this series, yet lost two of three.

"I wouldn't be lying to you: It sucks," left fielder Kyle Schwarber said. "We want to do go out there and feel like if those guys are keeping us close in the game, this offensive unit can go out there and put up runs. It just didn't happen (Tuesday) and today."

Max Scherzer was the victim in Tuesday's opener. Stephen Strasburg was the victim tonight, taking the loss despite a fairly strong pitching performance.

Some three hours after his teammates wrapped up a 5-3 victory in the completion of Wednesday night's suspended game, Strasburg took the mound to open the nightcap, seeking to pitch the Nationals to a series win. Five pitches in, he and his team were down 1-0.

Leaving a 3-1 fastball up in the zone to Eugenio Suárez, Strasburg watched as the Reds leadoff man drove the ball the other way and over the out-of-town scoreboard in right-center. It was the first game-opening homer Strasburg has allowed this year, but not an uncommon event for members of the Nats rotation. Strasburg now joins Scherzer, Patrick Corbin and Paolo Espino in having done it this season.

"That's a pitch that kind of sets up everything else, too," Strasburg said of the fastball that produced tonight's home run. "Solo home runs aren't going to beat me ... most times. He put a good swing on it, and I was able to settle down after that."

The top of the first was a grind for Strasburg, who wasn't fooling anyone with a fastball that sat at 92 mph and too often was up in the zone. But he quickly shifted to prioritizing his curveball, which as so often is the case proved to be exceptionally effective.

Strasburg would proceed to retire nine in a row and 13 of 14 batters during a prolonged stretch, using that curveball nearly 40 percent of the time. And then fate would turn on him during a sequence in the top of the fifth that left the right-hander with arms outstretched, wondering what he needed to do to catch a break.

The Reds recorded three hits in the inning. One came on Gray's comebacker that deflected off Strasburg's foot. Another came on Jesse Winker's grounder up the middle that deflected off second base and scooted past Trea Turner, who had been in position to make an inning-ending play. And the third was a cue-shot double by Tyler Naquin that barely landed in fair territory down the left field line.

Toss in some borderline pitches called balls by Todd Tichenor, and Strasburg had himself as tough-luck an inning as he's likely to experience.

"I don't know if I'll necessarily laugh about it, but it's baseball," he said. "When a guy's batting .350 or whatever (Winker) is, he's going to get hits like that. It's just how it works sometimes."

Because of it, though, the Nationals had themselves a 3-0 deficit and only three more innings to try to make it up. It's a familiar position for them at this point. And more often than not, the end result is the same.

"I've got tons of confidence in these guys, and today was a tough night," Martinez said. "We've got to keep plugging away tomorrow. We've just got to be ready early. I want to see us hitting some balls hard early in the count."