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Matt Williams on Nationals' 8-0 loss to Cardinals: "Probably the worst one we've played."

Washington Nationals' skipper Matt Williams talked to his team after they dropped an 8-0 decision to the St. Louis Cardinals tonight, but he wasn't interested in sharing the message he had for his players. "That's for me and my team and nobody else's business," Williams said.

By Patrick Reddington
Greg Fiume

Some sort of discussion took place in the Washington Nationals' clubhouse after tonight's 8-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Whatever Matt Williams said to his team, they chose not to share, though some players did comment on the tone of what was said:

Whatever his message was, Williams wasn't interested in sharing it with reporters in the nation's capital tonight.

"That's for me and my team," he responded when asked what he said.

"I'm not answering that question. That's for me and my team and nobody else's business." - Matt Williams when asked about post game message for his team

"I'm not answering that question," Williams continued. "That's for me and my team and nobody else's business."

"Regarding the game," he said, "probably the worst one we've played."

The Nationals committed four errors, two of them by Ian Desmond. They were held to two hits by Cardinals' starter Adam Wainwright and they were shut out in the first game of four with St. Louis.

What's behind the 20 errors in 16 games?

"They're mistakes," Williams said. "So we'll continue to work, that's all we can do. Continue to work at it, we work at it every day."

He didn't, however, think it was lack of effort or preparation.

Ian Desmond popped up without the ball when a grounder was hit his way on the first play of the game. In the next at bat, Taylor Jordan fielded a weak grounder off Kolten Wong's bat, but couldn't get it out of his glove in time to make a throw to first.

Cards 8, Nats 0: Adam Wainwright with complete game shutout in D.C.

 Photo © Brad Mills/USA TODAY Sports

Both runners ended up scoring and the Cards had all the runs they would need with a dominant Adam Wainwright on the hill. Danny Espinosa dropped a throw to second on what would have been an inning-ending double play in the fourth and Jayson Werth lost a line drive to right in the lights late in the game.

"Desi I think hurried on the first one," Williams said. "Taylor tried to get the ball out of his glove, couldn't get it out of his glove. Ball goes in the lights on Jayson [Werth]. So, is that lack of effort? No. It's not lack of effort, it's not lack preparation. It's not lack of anything. It is what it is. So what do we do about it tomorrow? We go play. That's all we can do."

The Nationals and Cardinals play the second game of their four-game series tomorrow night at 7:05 pm EDT with Gio Gonzalez on the mound for the Nats against Cards' right-hander Michael Wacha.

• We talked about the Nationals' errors, the loss to the Cards, Adam Wainwright's stuff, Taylor Jordan's struggles and more on Nats Nightly tonight:

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