Glorious sunshine sparkled on the field, leaving the grass a bit greener and the mood a bit brighter. It was 72 degrees with a slight breeze. It was a mostly full ballpark. Placido Domingo sang the national anthem.
For a few moments, maybe longer, the Nationals’ sluggish start – and the offseason headaches — were forgotten.
Until the game started, of course.
From that point, there was little for the Nationals (2-6) to celebrate, the home team subdued by a 7-1 loss to the New York Mets (5-1) in front of 40,530 mostly quiet fans at RFK Stadium Tuesday.
It was vastly different than last April when baseball returned to Washington and the crowd celebrated a victory, complete with big hits and a solid pitching.
“We didn’t give them anything to get rowdy about,” Nats manager Frank Robinson said.
A consistent offense would help. Washington, losers of three straight, has scored three runs or less in four games, yet the Nats have homered in seven straight. Alfonso Soriano extended that streak Tuesday with a shot to left in the seventh, making the score 5-1.
But aside from that it was pure futility against Mets starter Brian Bannister (1-0), who earned his first major league victory. Take the second inning, for example, when the Nationals did not take advantage of hitter’s counts. After a leadoff single by Nick Johnson, the next three batters made outs – Soriano, who was ahead in the count 3-0; Ryan Zimmerman (3-1) and Royce Clayton (3-1).
“We’re not having quality at-bats,” Robinson said. “We’re not getting the big hit to get something going.”
Of Washington’s last 15 hits, 13 have been singles. The problem is that six regulars now are batting .260 or below, including leadoff hitter Brandon Watson (.174, zero runs scored) and No. 3 hitter Jose Guillen (.207, two RBI).
“My job is to get on base,” Watson said. “When I’m not doing that it’s not that I feel pressure and I’m not worried, but you just want to do your job.”
Said Robinson, “Jose has to relax. He’s trying to do too much and he’s swinging at a lot of pitcher’s pitches. He’s not in a good mode.”
The Mets did their job against Ramon Ortiz (0-2), scoring twice off him in the fourth and fifth. Before then, Ortiz had limited the Mets to two hits.
“I’d rather be 6-2 than 2-6, but we’re not,” Robinson said. “[But] we don’t want toget too far behind.”
