Sloppy defense dooms Nats in third straight loss to Cards (updated)

Given the current state of their depleted lineup, the Nationals cannot afford to give the opposition extra runs with shaky play in the field.

They certainly can't afford to give them four extra runs.

The Nationals lost to the Cardinals for the third straight night, this time by a 5-1 count. They again struggled to come up with productive at-bats when they had opportunities to do something significant at the plate. But they also made life a whole lot tougher on their lineup - not to mention ace Max Scherzer - when they misplayed three balls that led to four of St. Louis' five runs crossing the plate.

"It's been frustrating," manager Davey Martinez said. "And I'm sure it's frustrating for Max, too."

Indeed, it is. Scherzer isn't typically one to reveal his frustrations after a loss, especially when he's not to blame for the result. But the three-time Cy Young Award couldn't complete hide it tonight after watching his team lose for the sixth time in his seven starts despite his generally effective performances.

"This is Major League Baseball. You've got to continue to look forward," he said. "You can't get caught up in anything else than doing your job. You have to go forward. You have to continue to do your job, and my job is to go out there and pitch as well as I can, deep in ballgames, and do everything I can do to be successful. Tonight, I thought I gave the team a chance to win. That's all I can ask for, for myself."

Scherzer was charged with three runs in seven innings, all three scoring in the top of the first. But none was his fault after Victor Robles, getting a rare start in right field, misplayed a shallow flyball and Carter Kieboom, the rookie shortstop looking less and less ready for this assignment by the day, made the first of his two misplays in the game.

"We all make mistakes," Scherzer said. "I make mistakes. I'm not here to worry about other people's mistakes. If you do, that's a losing mentality. You just got to go out there and compete. And do everything you can to win the ballgame.

The Nationals aren't winning ballgames right now. They've lost three in a row, falling to 12-17 on the season. They'll need a win Thursday afternoon to avoid a four-game sweep at the hands of the Cardinals, all this in advance of a daunting road trip to Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Los Angeles.

Compounding matters, the Nats were without another key regular tonight due to injury.

The news came down about an hour before first pitch that Juan Soto had been scratched with back spasms. It was a blow to a Nationals lineup already down multiple top-of-the-order hitters due to injury, but it also had a domino effect on the club's defensive alignment. Rather than simply have Michael A. Taylor replace Soto in left field, Martinez elected to put his best defensive player in center, moving Adam Eaton to left and Robles to right.

"Taylor, we've said this before: He is one of the best center fielders in the game," Martinez said. "He can play defense out there. And Robles played well in right field. And we had to make a choice whether Robles was going to play right and Adam play left. And Adam has played a lot of left field (in his career), so it wasn't that big of a decision."

It shouldn't have been that big a deal, but wouldn't you know Robles would get two balls hit his way in the top of the first, and he got twisted around on each of them. The latter, a shallow fly ball by Marcell Ozuna, found earth and scooted past the diving Robles for a generous RBI double.

Moments later, Kieboom couldn't successfully get around a baserunner to make a play on José Martínez's grounder to his left. The end result: two more runs across the plate, completing a three-run inning that exposed the challenge facing the rookie shortstop.

"That's something I've always done, is try to slow the game down," Kieboom said. "I don't feel like it's going too fast at all. I do feel comfortable out there. It's just unfortunate when pitchers do their job and then you don't back it up behind them."

That was the full extent of any damage the Cardinals inflicted against Scherzer, who didn't exactly cruise against his hometown team but made big pitches when he needed to make them. Twice he stranded a baserunner in scoring position with an inning-ending strikeout. And then he saved his best work for his final inning.

After allowing a leadoff double in the seventh, Scherzer buckled down and struck out pinch-hitter Jairo Muñoz, then perennial MVP candidate Paul Goldschmidt with a 97 mph fastball (his fastest pitch of the game). And though his pitch count was up to 109 and Joe Ross was ready in the bullpen, the ace was allowed to stay in to face Paul DeJong, whom he got to popup on the first pitch to end his start on a real high note.

"You watch him, and he was on," Martinez said. "He understands that at that particular moment, that's his game. I could've went out there and talked to him about it, but I probably wouldn't have gotten a nice answer."

Not that Scherzer's teammates made the most of his performance. They once again couldn't offer up much in the way of offensive support, scratching across one run while he was in the game.

They had chances. Four batters reached base in the fourth against Mikes Mikolas, but only one scored (when Yan Gomes beat out a potential inning-ending double play). Two more reached in the fifth but were stranded. Gomes led off the sixth with a double but never advanced beyond second base. And despite a leadoff single and wild pitch in the seventh, Eaton and Robles each struck out before Howie Kendrick flied out to right to end the inning and quash the Nationals' last best chance.

"Every guy in here is trying," Kendrick said. "It's not for a lack of effort. Sometimes that's the way the game goes. We all want to try to win ballgames. We're all trying to do it every day. That's why we are here. Right now the game is tough, and we just need a couple of breaks here and there."