You live by the sword, you die by the sword

When you're the lowest scoring team in the National League and you have good pitching, you're going to have a lot of tie games in the late innings. If you're going to win those games, you need to advance runners in scoring position. Unfortunately, the Nationals couldn't do that today. Carlos Baerga and Brad Wilkerson both missed big opportunities to drive in the tying and winning runs. We can forgive Baerga because our expectations of his hitting ability are so low; we're not even sure Baerga should be in major league baseball, let alone in such an important position in a close game. His very presence in the lineup is a reminder of the Nationals' lack of depth.

Wilkerson is another matter. Although we can't quarrel with an individual at bat, Wilkerson has been in a slump for a while now, and with all these injuries, the Nationals really need him to start hitting. His inability to drive in the tying run is not nearly as excusable as is Baerga's failure.

This is the state of the world for the Nationals now. They don't have the hitting to score lots of runs on a consistent basis, so they rely on pitching, defense, and one or two runs at a time. That ensures that they will be in a lot of tie games in the late innings. The Nats have won most of those games so far, but their amazing success in one-run games isn't likely to be repeated as we move into the second half of the season. If the Nationals want to sustain their success, they need to increase their run production. They need more offense now, but they will also need more offense even after Nick Johnson and Ryan Church come off the DL. The Nats can't expect better pitching in the second half, so any improvement has to come from more runs scored. Let's hope that the Nats can swing at least one deal for a big bat before the trade deadline passes.