Washington Nationals’ lineup for series finale with the San Francisco Giants

Through three games of the Washington Nationals’ four-game series with the San Francisco Giants this weekend, Davey Martinez’s club has scored three runs, in 1-0 and 2-1 losses, and a 2-0 win. The lack of scoring, the manager said last night, has some of his hitters pressing at the plate, and in his mind, Martinez said after their loss in the nightcap of Saturday’s twin bill in the nation’s capital, it led to a bad baserunning decision by Victor Robles.

With a runner on second and Robles on first after a HBP, he tried to tag and move from first to second base on a fly to right in the home-half of the eighth inning last night (which was extra innings in the seven-inning game) and he got thrown out sliding past the bag on Josh Bell’s fly for a double play which took the air out of the team’s attempt to answer the Giants’ two-run top of the inning.

Trea Turner stepped in next, with a runner on third and two out, and popped out to end the game.

“Honestly, I thought it was a poor — right there, I mean, that’s not a very smart decision,” the manager said of Robles’s latest baserunning gaffe.

“You know, we had the top of the order coming up. Man on first and third, just let the game play out. You see the ball coming, you tag up, you see the ball, you see that the throw is going to be really close, you just come back, and let those guys get a chance to hit. We had Turner and [Juan] Soto.

“I’ll talk to him tomorrow. I mean, he’s one of those guys as we all know, he tries to play super-aggressive, and he’s got to know when to do it and when not to. So, I’ll talk to him tomorrow. But here we are again talking about these guys trying to push the envelope because we’re not swinging the bat. That’s the bottom line, we’re not scoring any runs.

“These guys are playing hard, they’re trying too much to do something that we really shouldn’t be doing. We just got to relax and play the game.

“We had something going there at the end, and to get doubled up like that was tough.”

As he’s said over most of the first two and a half months this season, the Nationals continue to make solid contact at the plate, but they’re struggling to find holes or grass, and not really getting it done with runners in scoring position.

“We’re not finding that hole, but our at bats have to start getting consistent you know, throughout the lineup, and that’s something that we’ve been talking about, we harp on.

“We got on, one guy, the next guy — we got to have some consistency throughout our lineup. But I’ve said this all along, I believe in these guys. You see some guys that are really starting to get it. [Kyle] Schwarber today hitting a home run, just missing a couple, Bell, right-handed hitting the ball to the warning track there in a pinch hit [appearance]. So, you know they’re going to get it. They’re going to get it. [Josh Harrison] continues to swing the bat well.

“Saw Starlin [Castro] drive a ball today to left-center field. So, we just got to keep going.

“The good thing is like I said, our pitching is good, if we can just score some runs and score some runs early we’re going to be in great shape.”

That’s a big “if” considering the Nationals have scored three runs total in the last three games as mentioned.

“Let’s try to score about three in the first inning tomorrow and then we’ll go from there.”

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE FINALE WITH THE GIANTS: