On Sunday, the Washington Nationals had a chance to bounce back and get back to their winning ways, as well as avoid embarrassment and save face after a brutal first 2 games of this weekend's series against the Miami Marlins. Unfortunately for the Nationals, they were swept once again as the club is now a full 10 games below .500, and is not showing any signs of figuring things out.
Simply put, the Nationals need something to jumpstart their offense in a major way, as the club is moving through the month of August looking like the Nationals of the last few years. The Nationals offense has not done much of anything over the last few weeks, with rock bottom seemingly being the only thing the Nationals are hitting right now.
Nationals road woes continue after being swept by Marlins in Miami
As has been the story for the team over the majority of August, the offense was extremely hard to come by once again, and the Nationals, who were one of the best road teams in baseball across the first few months of the year, are now 4-16 over their last 20 road games. Making it even less impressive is that 2 of those 4 wins came against the Colorado Rockies, and the Nationals are just 2-13 as the visiting team this month.
It is a shocking development for a team that has little to no juice without their big bats like James Wood, CJ Abrams, Luis Garcia Jr., or Curtis Mead, the latter two were both traded at the deadline. At least the Nationals should hopefully return Wood and Abrams by the end of the month, but at that point, the team will likely be too far gone from a record standpoint.
While perhaps the lineup could be cut a little slack for missing their 2 All-Stars and best players, there is no excuse for the team's lack of juice from a lot of their alternatives at this point. This would have been a golden opportunity for guys who have unclear roles heading into next year like Dylan Crews, Daylen Lile, and others to prove themselves, but the outcomes have been extremely underwhelming.
If this isn't rock bottom for the Nationals, I'm not sure what will be. At this point, Paul Toboni might need to give some very serious consideration to bringing up potential September call-ups like Seaver King or others to help give this offense a jolt.
What do you think the Nationals can do to get back to their winning ways? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.
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