The Washington Nationals have more than five months, starting immediately, to shake the perception that clings to them now, after the 8-0, self-inflicted humiliation they suffered Thursday night against the St. Louis Cardinals. The season remains young, but already they have enhanced a reputation that sprouted last year. When faced with a lesser opponent, they dominate. When they encounter the kind of team they aspire to be, they wilt.
The Nationals had another chance Thursday night at Nationals Park to vanquish both an elite foe and their identity as a team unable to beat baseball’s best. They responded with shoddy, nervous defense that left starter Taylor Jordan helpless and an offense that Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright rendered inert. The Nationals trailed by three runs before they even took their first turn at-bat, committed four errors among defensive miscues that ranged from disheartening to comedic and produced two hits — the first a single in the second by Ian Desmond that bounced off home plate, the second a single from Adam LaRoche with two outs in the ninth.
The Nationals entered this season with the unapologetic expectation of reclaiming the National League East. They have looked capable when the New York Mets and Miami Marlins hit the schedule. In the six games against the Atlanta Braves and Thursday’s meltdown against the Cardinals, they have committed 14 of their MLB-high 20 errors while getting outscored, 40-16.
Since opening day 2013, the Nationals have gone 8-30 against the Braves, Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers, the NL’s reigning division champs. It may seem unfair to conflate last year’s results (7-24) with this year’s outcomes (1-6). And the Nationals have three games this weekend with their best three starters taking the mound, not to mention the 140 games to follow, to flip their narrative.
But the Nationals’ play against top competition suggests, that elite opponents change them. The Nationals entered Thursday leading the NL in runs per game. And yet, in seven games against the Braves and Cardinals, they have scored more than three runs just once. In nine games against lower-rung teams, the Nationals have committed six errors. They may not be bad, but they have played terrible against better teams.
The low point came Thursday night. The first batter of the game reached on the first of two of errors by Desmond, who has made an MLB-high seven. The Cardinals scored three runs in the inning and hopped on Wainwright’s broad shoulders. The miscues piled up until Jayson Werth lost a liner in the lights, the ball sailing past him.
The Nationals last beat the Cardinals on Oct. 11, 2012, in Game 4 of the National League Division Series. Ever since Werth’s walk-off homer crash landed in the visitors’ bullpen, the Cardinals have owned the Nationals like no other team, not even the Braves. The Cardinals won the next night, of course, and last year they beat the Nationals six out of six games.
Friday night, the Nationals will try to break their skid against right-hander Michael Wacha, who last September came within Ryan Zimmerman’s chopper over the mound with two outs in the ninth inning of dealing the Nationals a no-hitter.
“They play the game really well,” Manager Matt Williams said before the game. “They do a lot of things really well. It starts with their rotation. They’ve got one of the best catchers in the league, certainly, who runs a great game. They got power. They got some speed. They play exceptional defense. All of that combined is the reason why they’re at where they’re at. So, do we measure ourselves? I guess, yes. But ultimately, we have to worry about ourselves and play the game the way we want to play it in order to have a chance to beat them.”
Upon his arrival, and almost daily since, Williams has demanded the Nationals play strong defense. They have so far been perhaps the league’s worst-fielding team. After Desmond booted Matt Carpenter’s leadoff ground, Jordan collected a dribbler and, after a struggle to remove the ball from his mitt, threw late to first. The Cardinals had an instant rally on two balls that traveled about 170 feet, combined. They used it to score three runs, and for the seventh time in their first 16 games, the Nationals had surrendered at least three runs in the first.
Desmond committed another error in the fourth, this one on a throw that bounced maybe 10 feet short of first base. Second baseman Danny Espinosa added another error when, prompted by Jon Jay’s hard slide into his legs, he dropped the ball while transferring it from his glove to his hand, becoming the latest victim of MLB’s new transfer rule.
The Cardinals used those misplays to add another run. When rookie right-hander Blake Treinen replaced Jordan, who allowed five earned runs and seven total in 51/ 3 innings, the Cardinals added more.
The night’s lowest moment came in the seventh. Catcher Jose Lobaton called for one pitch, Treinen threw another and the ball skipped to the backstop. Treinen scampered to cover the plate and pointed at third base, where two Cardinals base runners had converged as the ball caromed straight to Lobaton. Lobaton instead flipped errantly to Treinen, and as the ball trickled across the infield grass, every Cardinal runner retreated to a base. One pitch later, Matt Adams smoked an RBI single to center, and the stadium organist did well to refrain from playing “Yakety Sax.”
By the ninth, random shouts echoed off swaths of empty seats. Wainwright blasted a double to left field, more damage than the Nationals had mustered against him all night. The Nationals at least have ample time to change a fact that, at the moment, could not be starker: The Cardinals are on one of baseball’s levels, and the Nationals are on another.