Groundhog Day

The Nationals' starting pitcher pitched well, but the team's lack of offense and spotty defense gave the opponent the win in a close game. Sound familiar? It is the pattern to nearly all Washington Nationals games in July, including yesterday.

John Patterson pitched another good game, giving up two runs and five hits in six innings. Patterson struck out six and walked three. The two runs were charged to Patterson, but you can make a very good argument that one of them shouldn't have been. In the third inning, Paul Lo Duca doubled. After Juan Encarnacion struck out, Patterson threw a curve that got away from Brian Schneider. Lo Duca broke for third and Schneider threw the ball into left field. This was a frustrating series of miscues, but it was probably beside the point because Mike Lowell then doubled, which would have scored Lo Duca from second.

In the sixth with one out and men on first and third, Patterson threw another curve that Schneider couldn't handle. This one went all the way to the backstop, and Lo Duca scored easily from third. Both this pitch and the pitch that got away from Schneider in the third were ruled wild pitches, but they appeared to us to be balls Schneider should have handled.

It didn't matter anyway, because the Nationals bullpen gave up a run in the seventh, and it was clear that any run the Marlins scored was one more than the Nationals would score. The Nationals made A.J. Burnett look like Walter Johnson yesterday, and never mounted a serious offensive challenge. In the first, Burnett walked Brad Wilkerson and hit Jamey Carroll, but then mowed down Nick Johnson, Vinny Castilla, and Ryan Church. The Nationals got only four hits on the day and looked seriously overmatched.

The Nationals are now five games behind the Braves and may be out of that race. They are two games behind the Astros for the wild card and are dangerously close to falling too far behind in that race. July has been the Nationals' last month, and with it unlikely that they'll make a significant deal before the trade deadline, the team looks like it's fading fast back to .500.