Jon Lester was frustrated.

Frustrated that his 11th start of the season on Friday against the Marlins lasted only 2 1/3 innings. Frustrated for the Nationals to have to call on four relievers after his early exit. Frustrated for catcher Yan Gomes that he wasn’t able to throw strikes and get back into counts. Frustrated that, once again, he wasn’t able to carry momentum from one solid outing to another.

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“The simple fact of me just going from one start pitching well, going deeper into a game, to the next start really not doing a whole lot is very, very frustrating,” Lester said after the Nationals’ 11-2 defeat at loanDepot park. “It’s not only frustrating for me -- it’s I’m sure frustrating for my teammates and frustrating for [manager] Davey [Martinez].”

One start after earning his first ‘W’ of the season with six strikeouts and only two runs allowed over six innings Saturday against the Mets, Lester was hoping to have the same result in Miami and extend the Nationals' winning streak to six games. Instead, he surrendered seven runs off five hits (including a first-inning home run to Miguel Rojas) and three walks and struck out just one. He threw only 34 of his 65 pitches for strikes in his shortest start of the season.

“I thought he was going to have a similar start as he had last time,” Martinez said. “He just couldn’t throw strikes. He doesn’t typically walk guys -- he really doesn’t -- he’s always around the plate. Today, he got behind hitters, they took some good swings off him, they stayed back on several of his breaking pitches as well.”

Lester began the night by striking out leadoff hitter Jazz Chisholm, and things changed quickly after that. The southpaw issued back-to-back walks to Starling Marte and Garrett Cooper. Then, he allowed an RBI single to Adam Duvall in the next at-bat, followed by a three-run homer to Rojas that put the Nationals in an early 4-0 hole.

Throughout the rest of his outing, Lester felt like he “pigeonholed” himself by missing on strike-one opportunities, falling behind in counts and not being able to locate his changeup.

“I felt comfortable in the first batter, and then after that it was like I just lost all feel really for anything and everything I was trying to do,” Lester said. “Put Yan in a bad situation back there, just not really anything we could go to to get a strike or get kind of back into counts or get bad contact. It was just crappy all around on my part.”

After a stretch of deep outings by their starters, the Nationals called on their bullpen for the majority of the game. Justin Miller, Paolo Espino, Sam Clay and Jefry Rodriguez also took the mound.

“He loves to compete, and he’s a winner,” Martinez said of Lester. “He gets really frustrated, especially with himself. That’s the big thing. I told him, ‘Hey, you’ll be back out there in five days, so just forget about this one and get ready for your next one.’”

The Nationals tried to climb back into the game following Lester’s exit in the third. Kyle Schwarber continued his home run streak by walloping his 22nd of the season and 12th in his last 12 games -- the most home runs in any 12-game stretch out of the leadoff spot since at least 1901. Schwarber also extended his trend of providing Lester, his longtime teammate, with run support dating back to their days with the Cubs. Friday marked the 28th game (regular and postseason) in which Schwarber homered in a Lester start.

Ryan Zimmerman added an RBI single in the third to cut the deficit to 4-2.

“The way we’re swinging the bats now,” Martinez said, “I really felt like if we kept it close, it would have been a different ballgame.”