The Nationals fell to the Brewers 6-0 Tuesday, their fourth loss in their last five games and dropping their record to 14-21. Washington is officially off to its worst start in a decade.
Worst 35-game starts in #Nats history (via @baseball_ref):10-25: 200712-23: 2009, 200614-21: 2019
— Jake Russell (@_JakeRussell)
May 8, 2019 The Nats are 7 games under .500 for the first time since 2011. They currently rank 14th out of 15 NL teams, ahead of only the Marlins.
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen)
May 8, 2019 But given how injuries have ravaged the lineup, is it fair to blame the team for struggling? The Sports Junkies debated that question Wednesday.
"Is it fair to criticize
Davey (Martinez)? Yes, it's fair to criticize Davey," said Jason Bishop. "I'm just not sure how much of that he deserves considering all the everyday players he's got out right now."
"Bullpen's been a forest fire, I get it. But until
(Anthony) Rendon came back yesterday, you had five everyday players out of the lineup, including essentially your best four hitters."
"It's just a fact they're injured, but you have to go beyond it because everybody gets injured," said
Eric "EB" Bickel. "It's definitely affecting them, nobody knows to what extent, but the fact is ... they're about 35 or 36 games in, you just can't ignore the fact they're a bad baseball team right now."
"It's a shame too, because the littlest, stupidest things are killing them."
And even if the Nats get healthy, will they have already dug themselves too deep a hole to save the season, and possibly Martinez's job?"
"What if they lose 16 of 17, or get swept (against the Dodgers)? Does Davey make it back to play the Mets next week? I don't know," said Bishop. "Is this team good enough to overcome a 10 game deficit?"
"The Davey deathwatch is officially on," said
John "Cakes" Auville. "If they get swept in Milwaukee, then lose three of four in LA, the deathwatch is on."
