While D.C. was enjoying its glorious spring weather this weekend, the Nats were in Miami getting severely pounded by the Marlins. Many of the now-usual themes were present: big early deficits, too many walks, and baserunning blunders maligned the brief road trip.

The biggest culprit, the Nats much-maligned pitching, has been adequately covered by others, including Chad Cordero’s two blown saves and the disasterous outings by Matt Chico and Jerome Williams. Really, in a just world, neither would be receiving these beatings at the major league level right now. Someday soon, mercifully, Jason Simontacchi or someone will come up and give them a break.

We’ll leave it alone because we’ve been conditioned to take the long view to the Nats future success. By now, we all know that a playoff-caliber pitching staff takes years (and millions) to develop. On offense, too, we know that a few years down the road, Ted Lerner will drop some cash to pick up a big stick for the middle of the lineup (Andruw Jones, anyone?). In the meantime, though, there are a lot of games to be played, and the Nats could and should be playing better ball in the near future, doing the things that separate the .500 teams from the cellar dwellers: getting better end-of-the-order hitting and playing better defense.

Photo by Flickr user CH722.