Tuesday morning news and notes

They're four games under .500, tied for fourth place in the five-team National League East, the season now 43.3 percent completed.

The Nationals are in trouble, right?

Well, not entirely. Yes, they're on the outside looking in right now, and they're going to have to turn things around in a more positive direction soon. But they're not as far out of the race as you might think upon first seeing that 11-15 record.

"It doesn't seem like things are out of hand. At all," catcher Yan Gomes said during a Zoom session with reporters following Monday night's 11-8 loss to the Marlins. "I think there's maybe a couple teams that aren't doing well. Everybody else is just kind of grinding away. I think we're a couple good series away from being right in the thick of things."

It may sound like sugarcoating a bad situation, but there is truth in what Gomes says. In this most unusual season, the Nationals really are a couple good series away from being right in the thick of things.

As bad as their record looks, there are two important facts to keep in mind when evaluating this team's postseason chances. First, in a short season, it's easier to make up ground. And second, because of Major League Baseball's decision to expand the 2020 postseason to 16 teams, the Nats really don't even have to make up that much ground to qualify for October baseball.

In a normal year, they'd be in trouble. They're four games behind the Braves for the division lead. And they're three games behind the Cardinals, holders of the second and final NL wild card berth.

Except that's not the way the 2020 postseason will work. Eight teams from each league make it: the winners of the six divisions, the runners-up of those six division and the two next-best teams (based on winning percentage) in each league.

Where does that leave the Nationals? One game out. Yes, really. They're only one game back in the NL wild card race, which currently sees the Giants (14-16) holding the eighth and final berth.

Yep, as things stand right now, two sub-.500 teams would qualify for the postseason in the NL.

So this is what the race for the eighth seed in the NBA is like, huh? Except in this case, there may not even be much of any advantage to winning your division, aside from the right to serve as the home team for the entire opening round, three-game series.

Just don't tell the Nationals they can afford to take it easy and just focus on clinching the last available berth in the postseason.

"I think we all should really fight for winning a division," Gomes said. "We understand there's more teams making the playoff this year, which makes things not out of hand. But again, we still need to start having better series. We're like two or three series away from being right in the middle of things."

* Even in agonizing loss, Juan Soto finds ways to do special things. The Nationals slugger had four hits during Monday night's game, which leave him with a .400 batting average and 1.302 OPS for the season.

"Right now, I feel really good," he said. "I'm seeing the ball really well. I've just been working a lot, and all that work is coming out right now. It feels good to be out there, but if the team doesn't win, it isn't working. So we have to find a way to keep helping the team."

It's tough to imagine Soto doing anything more to help the Nationals' chances. He's already doing just about everything within his power.

"He's really staying behind the ball really well," manager Davey Martinez said. "He's getting the ball in the strike zone, and he's hitting the ball really, really hard. That's who he is. You're seeing someone really mature every year. I think now he understands what he can do. He knows what pitches he's looking for, what he can hit hard. Even his foul balls, on tough pitches, he's hitting them pretty good."

* Wander Suero pitched as well Monday night as he's ever pitched in a Nationals uniform. The right-hander faced five batters in the sixth and seventh innings. He retired all five, three via strikeout. He threw 20 pitches, 17 for strikes.

Why, then, did Martinez pull him at that point, with two outs and nobody on the seventh inning of what was a 7-3 game? Because the Nationals manager to being especially careful not to burn Suero out after his season began late due to his stint on the injured list for unspecified reasons.

"He had no spring training, basically," Martinez said. "He's just coming back. He's gradually throwing the ball really, really good. We need him."

The manager may have had reasons for pulling Suero when he did, but the reliever who followed (Dakota Bacus) didn't do his part to help justify the move. Bacus immediately walked Miguel Rojas before hanging a slider to Jon Berti that was crushed to center field for a two-run homer.