Top of the order never got in line with injuries to Span, Werth and others

Imagine the Cleveland Cavaliers without LeBron James for half the season or the New England Patriots with quarterback Tom Brady only available for eight games instead of the usual 16. And as the Capitals learned last night when they were blanked without leading scorer Alexander Ovechkin, not having your best player affects the entire team and its ability to score.

These are dramatic examples, but the Nationals were without crucial parts of their offense for extended periods of time in 2015, which severely hamstrung their ability to put together a consistent offensive attack.

One reason is four of their top position starters were available for only half of the regular season schedule and some put up career-low numbers of games played.

Left fielder Jayson Werth played in only 88 games in 2015. His previous career low was 81 games with the Nationals in 2011.

He ended up having to be the leadoff man in 21 games. He was never the leadoff man in 2014, batting third in 134 games. In 2015, he batted third in 28 games.

With runners in scoring position, Werth had 82 at-bats this season, connecting only 19 times for a .232 average with 34 RBIs. He struck out 22 times and walked 10 times with men in scoring position.

In 2014, Werth had 130 at-bats with runners in scoring position, connecting with 44 hits and a .338 average. His average was 106 points higher with runners in scoring position in 2014. Werth had 63 RBIs with RISP in 2014, 29 more than this season. That severely affected the offense, as Werth had to lead off with center fielder Denard Span not available for most of the season.

Span played in 147 games in 2014 and a career-low 61 games in 2015. His 184 hits in 2014 were a career high and he finished 19th in the National League Most Valuable Player voting. This season, Span finished with only 74 hits, also a career low.

Span scored 94 runs in 2014 and only 38 times this season.

The negative impact of not having top starters continued with Ryan Zimmerman, who has been in a career downturn health-wise over the past two seasons. Zimmerman has played in only 156 combined games - not even a full season - in 2014 and 2015. His combined 560 at-bats over the past two seasons does not even equal the 568 at-bats he had in 147 games in 2013.

When Zimmerman did play in 2015, he connected. Zimmerman had 16 homers and 73 RBIs in 95 games this season. He hit .287 this season with runners in scoring position.

The Nationals offense could never get off to a good start because their other corner infielder, third baseman Anthony Rendon, started the season on the disabled list. Yunel Escobar played third and hit well, but this team was designed with Rendon at third base, and he played only 28 games at the hot corner in 2015. In 2014, Rendon played 134 games at third base. He was coming off a Silver Slugger season and was voted fifth in the NL MVP race. Rendon and Bryce Harper had the best offensive output on the team in the 2014 National League Division Series loss to the Giants. But Rendon's 80 games in 2015 were a career low.

With Werth, Span, Rendon and Zimmerman never able to get healthy at the same time - the intended opening day lineup played together just twice all season - the Nationals offense lacked the cohesion and consistency it needed to repeat its 2014 numbers.