'We just can't get that big hit': Lack of timely offense costs Nats

CHICAGO -- Sometimes in baseball, the difference between a win and loss can be boiled down to one pitch, one situation, one decision, or one thing. For the Nationals in recent days, it’s felt like that one thing has been the timely hit.

The Nationals lost 2-0 to the White Sox on Wednesday afternoon, in the rubber match of a three-game series at Guaranteed Rate Field. It marked the second straight game they were shut out in Chicago, and also their second straight series loss.

“We just can't get that big hit,” manager Dave Martinez said after Wednesday’s loss. “It does boil down to just getting that one hit. I think if we score a couple of runs there, everybody relaxes, things start happening. And we just can't get it done.”

Putting themselves in position for the big hit wasn’t the issue in the past two games so much as it was coming through. The Nationals left seven runners on base and went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position in Game 2 of Tuesday’s doubleheader, a 4-0 loss.

Wednesday, they left nine men on base and went 0-for-9 with RISP.

“I keep saying, ‘We're close, we’re close,’” Martinez said. “We’ve just got to put a couple of games together where we're knocking in some runs, and then we forget about all this and we take off. We’ve just got to keep our heads up. We got to just start to work better at-bats, get the ball in the zone, especially with guys on base.

“Let's just get the ball in the zone and be aggressive.”

After playing 18 innings of baseball on Tuesday, and with a tough lefty on the mound Wednesday in White Sox starter Garrett Crochet, the Nationals’ lineup had a different look in the series finale. CJ Abrams, Eddie Rosario, Luis García Jr. and Jesse Winker did not start.

Beyond getting nine right-handed bats in the lineup, Abrams, who pinch hit in the ninth inning, had played in every game dating back to April 9. With a quick turnaround from Tuesday, it was a logical opportunity to get him, and García, a day off.

Washington put pressure on Crochet early and often. They had at least one runner in scoring position in each of the first three innings, and in the third inning loaded the bases with two outs. Keibert Ruiz fell behind 1-2 and worked the count full, but the 25-year-old struck out on a 90 mph cutter thigh-high.

Ruiz, who struck out three times on Wednesday, is hitting .141 with a .393 OPS this season.

“I’ve got to sit down, relax, think a little bit better and swing at better pitches, better plan and stay with it,” Ruiz said. “Don’t go off the plan and don’t chase for results. Just have a plan, and whatever happens, happens.”

That echoes Martinez’s message of not chasing and attacking pitches in the strike zone. And, ultimately, it doesn’t fall on just one guy.

“I've seen signs where they will come out of it and then we start hitting,” Martinez said. “The last two games, it just didn't happen. The first game [Tuesday], we scored runs. We’ve just got to keep working, keep talking about it.

“I think the whole thing now is that it becomes more pressure when one guy can’t do it. The next guy comes up, and it’s that much more pressure. We’ve just got to keep battling.”

Patrick Corbin kept the Nationals in Wednesday’s game with another quality performance. He allowed six hits and was charged with two runs in 5 2/3 innings, lowering his ERA this month to 3.24 in 16 2/3 innings, spanning three starts.

Trevor Williams (one earned run, five innings) and Mitchell Parker (three earned runs, five innings) also turned in quality performances this week. The Nationals will need more of that from the starting rotation going forward, certainly in this weekend’s three-game series against the Phillies.

And against a star-studded Phillies offense, which entered Thursday averaging 5.16 runs per game (second in the Majors to the Dodgers), they know they’ll need to hit, too.

Entering Wednesday, the Nationals were averaging 4 runs per game in May (​​48 runs scored in 12 games). They scored nine runs on May 3 and 11 on May 5 against the Blue Jays. In the other 10 games, they averaged 2.8 runs.

“We’ve got to be ready to play in Philly,” Martinez said. “We’ve got to score some runs there”