Too little too late: The Washington Nationals rally comes up short against the Mets

The Nationals offense woke up from their slumber, but it was not enough to overcome Mets

The Nationals have now lost five straight games as their ninth inning rally came up short. For 8 innings, it was more of the same from the offense. They did absolutely nothing and looked totally lost at the plate. The boys at the top of the lineup came to life in the 9th, but the bottom of the order could not come through.

The Nationals got into a hole early when Michael Soroka gave up a 3 run homer to Jeff McNeil. There were some questionable calls by the umpire to get it to that point, but with Keibert Ruiz’s inability to frame, we are on the wrong end of borderline calls more often than not.

For the first 8 innings the offense continued their embarrassing run of form. They only had three hits in those first 8 frames, with two of them coming from James Wood. It was all doom and gloom as the Mets pitching staff carved through this lineup like butter.

Kodai Senga was putting on a clinic for the first 5.2 innings. His fastball and forkball were playing so well off of each other. I really like watching Senga pitch. He is great at using the fastball at the bottom of the zone to freeze hitters who are expecting a forkball below the zone. When guys are ready for that low heater, he will throw the forkball which just dives off the table. Here is a really pretty sequence by Senga against Robert Hassell III.

However, Senga hurt his hamstring covering first base and had to leave the game. For the first couple innings, the Nats did not do any better against the Mets bullpen. Jose Castillo and Huascar Brozoban shut down the Nats as well.

However, the Nats bullpen did a good job keeping the game within striking distance. Eduardo Salazar and Zach Brzykcy delivered three scoreless innings out of the pen. There was some traffic on the bases, but they got the job done.

That led to the fateful ninth inning. The top of the Nats lineup jumped all over Ryne Stanek. It feels like they have a history of performing against Stanek over the years. CJ Abrams, James Wood and Luis Garcia Jr. all singled off of the Mets right hander.

That forced Edwin Diaz to come into the game with first and third with nobody out. He was off his game. Diaz threw seven straight balls to start his outing. After walking Nathaniel Lowe, he went to 3-0 to Josh Bell before giving up a single to him.

The bases were loaded with nobody out and it was a 2 run game. After going 2-1 to Alex Call, the Nats right fielder expanded the zone on a slider and popped up to the second baseman.

Then Jose Tena came to the plate. Things got even more interesting when Diaz threw a wild pitch to make it 4-3 and put the tying run 90 feet away. However, Tena grounded out which put the game on the line with the struggling Keibert Ruiz at the plate.

Keibert Ruiz did what Keibert Ruiz does, ground out on the first pitch. It feels like Ruiz has been such a rally killer for the Nats lately and just deflates the team. This is another instance of the catching position just killing the Nats.

At the end of the day, it was just too little too late. The offense woke up too late. We can talk about how the boys battled, but that feels a bit hollow. Where was this the first 8 innings of the game? Yes, Senga is a great pitcher, but they have been bad against most pitchers this month, not just aces.

The Marlins and Rockies are coming to town, which should provide relief. However, we have to remember what went down the last time we played those teams plus the Pirates. They were coming off series wins against Arizona and LA, before going 4-6 against the bottom of the NL. If they play like they did the first 8 innings, they will lose to these teams.

June has been really rough for the Nats, especially offensively. This home stand has the potential to turn things around, but the offense needs to build off that 9th inning.