Down in the dumps

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

MILWAUKEE -- As the losses pile up, the hits refuse to fall and golden opportunity after golden opportunity is wasted, the Washington Nationals no longer sound upset or frustrated. Instead they're incredulous over the series of unfortunate events that have occurred during the most trying season of their respective careers.

"I don't think you can do this for six months," right fielder Austin Kearns said half-definitively, half-skeptically.

Common sense says the Nationals have to snap out of this funk. No team is this bad, right?

Then again, facts are facts, and after yesterday's 3-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, this ballclub staggered home from a brutal trip that tested everyone physically and mentally.

What began 10 days ago in San Diego with an encouraging 3-2 win ended yesterday with Washington's eighth straight loss. Manager Manny Acta's squad couldn't get anything going offensively for the umpteenth time, wasted another brilliant pitching performance from Jason Bergmann and boarded its charter flight to the District with a 9-25 record that's almost hard to comprehend.

"The record shows what it is," catcher Brian Schneider.

What the record doesn't show is how the Nationals lost all these games. Unlike their 1-8 stretch to open the season, when they were getting blown out just about every night, they're now doing just enough to lose. Or not quite enough to win.

Seven of these last eight losses were by three runs or less. Five of them were by two runs or less.

The pattern was simple: The Nationals would get a solid pitching performance, get a couple of hits but fail to come through with that one clutch at-bat, key pitch or crucial defensive play to swing tight ballgames in their favor.

"To me, it's encouraging," Acta said. "Yes, you can look up our [won-loss record] and make every type of negative, sarcastic comment about us. But we haven't been blown out of games since the first week of the season. Every game we've been there."