Washington Nationals’ lineup for the 1st of 3 with the Philadelphia Phillies

Washington Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez talked after the club’s fourth straight loss to Miami and their fifth straight loss overall about the offense struggling to put up runs in the 3-2 loss on Monday and in the series overall.

“They pitched well,” he said. “We had some opportunities to score some runs. We had bases loaded, one out, and we couldn’t score. It felt like we had the right guys up there to give us another run, we just didn’t swing the bats early in games, and our offense got to get going. We gotta start hitting the balls, we got to start putting some runs on the board.”

The Nationals scored 12 runs in four games, but came up short in four in a row. What did Marlins’ pitchers do to keep Nats’ hitters in check for most of the four-game set?

“They keep our hitters off-balance,” the fifth-year manager said, “and it takes us a while to figure out, ‘Hey, we got to get the ball up.’ We got to get the ball up, we’re a good fastball-hitting team, but we have to see the ball up, and early in the games you could tell, we chased some balls, chased some balls down, got some ground balls, and then later in the game we started getting the ball up and our at-bats get a lot better. So from the first inning on, we got to get the ball up, we got to see fastballs, we got to stay on the fastballs, and make adjustments throughout the at-bat, but for us, we have to get the ball up.”

Up next it’s three with the Philadelphia Phillies in Citizens Bank Park, with their NL East rivals who took three of four in their first series of the season last month.

Juan Soto tweaked his left calf in the third of four with Miami in D.C., and though he did pinch hit late in the series finale, taking his sixth walk in four games, Martinez said they’d have to wait and see if he’d be available tonight.

“With him, it’s going to be day-to-day,” the manager said. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow. He said he felt better today, and then we’ll see how he feels tomorrow, but the running is going to be the issue.”

Is Soto in the lineup? [ed. note - “He’s not.”] Let’s see…

HERE IS THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE OPENER WITH THE PHILLIES: