What a difference four days make.

On Monday, the Nationals were surging. They had just taken two out of three from the Phillies and were four games under .500 for the first time since April. But then the Rockies came to town. When the dust settled, bullpen coach John Wetteland may have been the only one to lose his job, but the damage had been done.

For the first time since arriving in Washington, the Nationals were swept in a four-game series. After a hot stretch that reached from the middle of May to the middle of June, the Nats’ bats fell largely silent. They lost on Thursday by a score of 8-1, and after scoring 8 runs in the first four innings on Wednesday, Washington has plated just that lone run over their last 13 innings. As the offense sputtered, their starting pitchers gave up 22 earned runs to the Rockies.

The Nationals, who have now lost more games than the last place Florida Marlins, face the Yankees this weekend. It is New York’s first trip to Washington, D.C., since 1971 when the final game the Washington Senators played in RFK Stadium ended in a forfeit. For Alfonso Soriano, this weekend could be an audition of sorts. The left fielder, with just 4 hits over his last 32 at bats with 10 strike outs, is on the list of players who could be traded this weekend, and the Yanks are interested. DCist will be at the game tonight and Sunday, and I can’t help but wonder if we’ll see more Yankee fans than Nationals fans filling the seats in RFK tonight.