Nationals manager Dave Martinez said before Sunday’s game against the Miami Marlins that he wanted to see his squad score early to break an offensive slump.
They did. Leadoff hitter Alex Call drew a walk in the first inning and went on to score on a groundout by Luis Garcia Jr.
Then the Marlins pitched eight shutout innings.
Miami won 3-1 to sweep the three-game series and stretch Washington’s losing streak to eight games.
“We got to stick with it. I tell them all the time, we’ve got to keep battling,” Martinez said after the latest display of offensive ineptitude. “Keep putting the baseball two feet this way, three feet that way; it could be a different game.”
Getting on base wasn’t a problem for Washington on Sunday. Getting those runners across home plate was the issue.
The Nationals were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position and left nine players on base. The inert offense has been a running theme for Washington throughout the skid.
During a three-game stretch at the end of May, Martinez’s group scored 29 runs in an offensive explosion. In 13 games since then, they’ve managed just 31 runs.
“We get overly aggressive. I think we just got to be a little more selective, little bit more patient,” Martinez said. “But you’re struggling as a whole — you want to drive in runs.”
But none of Martinez’s moves have managed to kick his hitters out of their funk. He switched the batting order on Sunday, moving Call into the lineup spot and moving shortstop C.J. Abrams down to the third spot.
Despite the first-inning run, it didn’t work.
Martinez tried to embrace small ball during a potential rally in the fifth inning. With runners on first and third, the manager called for a hit-and-run. Any ground ball that didn’t become a double play could score the runner from third.
Designated hitter Josh Bell put the ball in play, as designed, but sent a grounder straight to the third baseman.
The Marlins sent the ball to second and first for an easy double play to end the inning.
“Oh, snap,” Martinez said of his thoughts during the failed hit-and-run. “We’re trying everything we can.”
A potential ninth-inning rally was squashed in similar fashion. Trailing by two with a runner on first, Call sent a hard-hit grounder straight back to Marlins reliever Freddy Tarnok.
Tarnok snagged the ball and turned it around for a game-ending double play.
At some point, the results are out of Martinez’s hands. The World Series-winning manager said as much after Saturday’s loss.
“It’s never on the coaches,” he said of the offensive struggles. “Sometimes you got to put the onus on the players. They got to go out there and they got to play the game and play the right way. We can’t hit for them.”
Martinez walked back his comments on Sunday, insisting that he never meant to criticize his players. He was only looking to defend his coaching staff.
“It wasn’t on them. They know that. They’ve been through it,” he said. “The clubhouse is as good as it’s ever been. These guys stick together. We’ve went though this before.”
The Nationals weathered a similar losing streak earlier in the season, but the current skid is the franchise’s longest since July 2022.
The frustration is evident in Washington’s clubhouse. But that’s just baseball, according to the players.
“This game is going to hit you in the mouth,” Gore said after tossing six innings of two-run ball and earning a loss. “This is obviously lasting a little longer than we would like it to, but you figure out what people are about when things aren’t going well.”
The 30-41 Nationals’ homestand continues Monday against the Colorado Rockies. Washington now trails the New York Mets by 15 games in the NL East.
“Stay where your feet are. Come in here and try to get better as a team, stay together and we believe in each other,” Abrams said. “It’s not like we can’t win eight in a row as well.”
A four-game set against one of the worst teams in MLB history — the Rockies are an abysmal 14-57 — is an ideal place to start.
• Liam Griffin can be reached at lgriffin@washingtontimes.com.
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