Washington Nationals’ lineup for 2nd of 3 with Chicago Cubs in Wrigley

“I thought we hit the ball well today,” Davey Martinez told reporters after last night’s 6-3 loss to the Cubs in Chicago’s Wrigley Field. “We didn’t have nothing to show for it, but [Nelson Cruz] hit balls hard all day, obviously Luke [Voit] hit a home run, and then [Luis] García hit some balls hard, so they swung the bats, we just couldn’t get nothing together, drive in some runs, we had a couple guys on base just couldn’t get them in.”

Martinez’s club went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position and six left on base in what ended up their sixth straight loss.

“We chased. We chased a few times with guys on base,” the fifth-year manager told reporters. “[Maikel] Franco’s got to get the ball up in certain situations,” he added, pointing to Franco’s double play grounder with two on and no one out in the fifth.

“Tried to get the ball off the ground there, but when you have two strikes like that you try to just put the ball in play, he just hit it to the shortstop, but with guys on base, we got to do a better job on trying to get the ball in the strike zone, get the ball up and try to drive the ball.”

Voit, as noted above, managed to drive the ball, homering for the second time since joining the Nats, and the 15th time overall this season, leaving him 7 for 20 (412/.500/.765) since he came over from San Diego in the Juan Soto/Josh Bell deal with the Padres.

“He’s been great, he really has,” Martinez said, “… and what I love about him, like I said, he’s been a good teammate, he’s been a good clubhouse guy in there, he’s got a lot of energy, so he’s done well since he’s been here.”

The Nationals get another shot to snap their six-game losing streak tonight when they take on the Cubs in the second of three in Wrigley.

HERE’S THE NATIONALS LINEUP FOR THE 2ND OF 3 WITH THE CUBS: