Photo by Kevin H.

“We’re playing terrific baseball except for the fact that we’re struggling with runners in scoring position,” proclaims Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo when asked by Fox Sports about the performance of his team. Oh, really?

That’s pretty optimistic talk for a guy whose offensive charges rank near the bottom of the majors in hits, batting average, on base percentage, slugging, discipline at the plate, extra base hits and pinch hitting success. That’s some “terrific baseball,” alright.

Now, I realize that part of Rizzo’s job is to remain optimistic about the lineup he was responsible for assembling. But it appears that situational hitting is but one of several problems the team is having offensely this year — which probably helps explain another statistic the Nats rank near the bottom of the league in: winning percentage.