Photo by MudflapDC

If you normally arrive late to baseball games, the recently-completed Nationals-Marlins series was not for you. Arriving late would have meant seeing the home team either going through the motions to earn a paycheck or valiantly fighting to overcome a large deficit (depending on how full your glass is). The Nats have now lost five in a row, and you’d have to go back to Saturday’s extra-inning loss against the Dodgers to find a game in which the team even looked competitive. To date, I’ve harped about bad defense, poor clutch hitting, and a leaky bullpen. Those issues remain, but somehow, the starting pitching came out unscathed. That changes now.

This homestand lined up favorably for the Nats, considering their disproportionately superior performance at Nationals Park and the opponents (Florida, Arizona) on the slate. It’s not that the Nats got swept by the Marlins — it’s that they were absolutely demolished on their own field. Stephen Strasburg’s return from the disabled list on Tuesday fell flat, with Florida second-baseman Dan Uggla smacking him around in the first and third innings to post an early 4-0 lead for the visitors. Scott Olsen at least consolidated the misery on Wednesday, letting the Marlins jump out to a 4-0 lead before the Nats even had a chance to bat. Both pitchers struggled to close out innings, as both of Uggla’s big hits against Strasburg and all of Florida’s first inning runs off of Olsen came with two outs.