Washington Nationals’ lineup for second of three with Arizona Diamondbacks in D.C.

Following the Washington Nationals’ relatively listless performance in Tuesday’s 3-hour, 48-minute, 6-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Nats’ skipper Dusty Baker talked to reporters in the nation’s capital about the limitations he was working under in the first game of three with the D-Backs in D.C.

“We had some guys that were hurting some,” Baker said.

His team had Monday off after a string of 13 games in 13 days that included the ten-game road trip to Atlanta, New York and Colorado and three more with the Mets in Washington.

Baker was short in the bullpen (short on available right-handers in particular), so he stuck with Tanner Roark longer than he would have liked (125 pitches in six innings).

That wasn’t it.

“We were short in the catcher’s position cause [Matt] Wieters was sick and so we were just short and it was kind of a downer day, I don’t know why, but it just seems like we [didn’t] bounce back with a lot of life after the off day, cause the off day kind of just sits on you after that long grind, but we’ve got to turn it back on tomorrow.”

Washington went 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position and 10 runners left on base in the three-run loss and the bullpen struggled again, with right-handers Blake Treinen and Joe Blanton each giving up a run in what was a 4-3 game going into the seventh.

“We did have some opportunities,” Baker said. “We left a lot of men on base.

“We were picking them up in the last series, so we’ll just have to start picking them up tomorrow.”

Gio Gonzalez starts tonight in the second of three with the Diamondbacks, who have former Nats’ prospect Robbie Ray on the mound in Nationals Park.

Here’s Dusty Baker’s lineup for tonight’s game: