Nationals roughed up by Orioles in lopsided shutout (updated)

An opening month of fits and starts for the Nationals re-started tonight with the first of 13 straight scheduled game days, a development Davey Martinez was excited about, hoping it might finally provide some sense of normalcy and consistency in a season that is anything but normal or consistent.

After a lopsided loss to the Orioles, Martinez might want to revisit that line of thinking. The Nationals didn't look excited to be out there tonight at all. It showed both on the scoreboard and on the unmasked faces of the defending champions, who were outplayed in every possible way by their interleague rivals who lost a combined 223 games the last two seasons.

Tonight's 11-0 loss was as bad as it sounds. The Nationals were roughed up by the Orioles lineup, which took down Aníbal Sánchez and just about every reliever who followed. And they were carved up by Tommy Milone, the journeyman left-hander who twice pitched for this organization but rarely as well as he did tonight in shutting out a supposedly dangerous group of hitters.

"This game was about as lopsided as I've seen in a long time," said Martinez, whose team had not suffered a shutout loss that lopsided since the final day of the 2018 season. "They swung the bats well. We didn't swing the bats well. ... It was just one of those games."

Perhaps this can be chalked up as "just one of those games" that will be forgotten the moment the Nationals return to work Saturday. But while this was easily the worst loss of this young season, it did contain elements of several prior losses, and that could be cause for greater concern.

Most notably, the lack of offense. The Nationals recognized they were going to have to work harder to score runs this season minus Anthony Rendon and Ryan Zimmerman. But this has turned into more of a nightly struggle than anyone anticipated.

Even with Juan Soto back in the lineup after his (potentially false) positive test for COVID-19, the Nats have looked lifeless at the plate. They scored one run (on a Soto RBI double) in the first inning of Wednesday's loss to the Mets. They haven't scored in any of the 17 innings since.

"We've just got to get in that groove," Martinez said. "We're going to play a lot of games in a row now, so that's kind of nice. We've got to get that feeling back. For me, it all starts with the top. We get (Adam Eaton) and (Trea Turner) going, things will start happening."

They aren't happening for either top-of-the-order hitter yet. Turner is batting .184 with a .238 on-base percentage. Eaton is hitting .237 with a .293 on-base percentage.

In a 60-game season, there's pressure to turn things around quickly. It's a temptation the players insist they must resist.

"If we do, it's just going to snowball on us," Turner said. "There's no point to. I think it's more perspective. More teams are in the playoffs this year, so you've got more room for error, more opportunities to make up ground."

Things weren't any better on the mound tonight than they were at the plate, beginning with Sánchez's start.

The veteran right-hander gave up back-to-back doubles in the top of the first, and things progressively went further downhill from there. Orioles batters weren't fooled one bit by his assortment of off-speed stuff, making loud contact with alarming frequency and swinging and missing at only two pitches in the first three innings.

It was obvious Sánchez wasn't going to have much success tonight, but Martinez let the 36-year-old stay out there as long as he could, perhaps wanting to make sure he wasn't burning up his bullpen too much on the first day of this prolonged stretch of baseball.

The end result: Sánchez was charged with five runs and 10 hits while throwing 91 pitches over 5 1/3 labored innings. More concerning: He's now 0-2 with a 7.84 ERA and unsightly 1.94 WHIP.

"I used to throw my fastballs down, and it's easier to locate my (off-speed) pitch in the dirt, and that's when the hitters get out more swing-and-miss," he said. "When I'm up, every breaking ball is a bit higher than normal, and that's when the hitter is able to make contact with the ball."

Things didn't improve at all once Martinez turned to his bullpen. Ryne Harper, one of several feel-good relief stories early this season, served up a three-run homer to Renato Núñez in the sixth, then an RBI double to former Nationals catcher Pedro Severino.

Wander Suero equaled his predecessor in allowing three runs on four hits during his one inning of relief. Kyle Finnegan stopped the bleeding with a scoreless eighth, but even that inning included Baltimore's 19th hit of the game.

It was up to Sam Freeman to pitch a clean ninth and avoid the final ignominy of the night: a 20-hit performance. The lefty did allow two baserunners (on a Turner error and a walk) but he successfully prevented that milestone hit at the end of an arduous night at the ballpark.

"They kicked our butts tonight," Turner said. "We've got to be ready each and every day. If we can get back to that 'win the day' type of deal, we'll be all right. We've got a lot of games to play, and we've got a lot of room to get in there. And like you saw last year, we just have to get in and we've got a good ballclub to make a run. We need to get it going."