MIAMI -- The Washington Nationals, everybody's favorites before the season started, are playing miserably.
So miserably in fact that the detractors are starting to surface with pointed criticisms. According to two scouts who have seen them this year, the Nats appear "lifeless" and/or "flat." (One voted flat, the other lifeless.)
And, if they are flat or lifeless on the field, you should see them in the clubhouse, where some of them appear moribund. The room is close to dead, too dead for late April.
Some of the players look like an 8-year-old who lost his puppy, not professionals whose team is on a losing streak and has been there before. If they told us that it's only 19 games and that they are still a great team, that would work fine. And a few of them did suggest just that Sunday (notably Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper). Good for them.
But some others appear to be taking their terrible start hard, harder than is necessary even. That's not necessarily a good sign, either. Taking losses hard is part of the unwritten code in baseball. But this team, in some quarters, appears more depressed than the Nats teams that suffered some tough postseason defeats in recent years.
As for their play, after the 6-2 defeat Sunday to the Marlins, who seem to have dug themselves out of their own abyss, the Nats have lost five straight to fall to 7-12. And for those scoring at home, that includes four wins -- yes, a majority of their victories -- against the eminently flawed Phillies.
"They seem lifeless -- no fight at all," one scout said.
"They look flat. It's like 25 individuals rather than a team," another said.
Nats manager Matt Williams himself detected some flaws late in spring training when he reportedly gave the team a stern lecture over their error-a-game pace (for the record, they had made 25 errors in 27 spring games at the time, and have 18 errors in the 19 games that count so far). But he didn't seem to love those assessments.
"I don't know who you're talking to, but it looks flat when you don't hit because you don't have men on the bases. When you don't hit, it looks lifeless," Williams said. "Everyone's got an opinion. That's certainly not me."
The word flat must carry a very negative connotation to him, but for the record it was also volunteered as an adjective by a Nats player in the clubhouse later. (I won't say who so as to spare him a talking to.)
Whatever adjective you prefer, another fielding miscue cost them Sunday. They entered the day as one of two teams on an error-a-game pace (the A's were the other) but in this case it was a mental mistake. Catcher Wilson Ramos held the ball too long in a fourth-inning rundown, allowing Marlins star Giancarlo Stanton to scramble back to third base, and to keep an inning alive and the bases full. "We run it every other day. I don't know why he didn't give the ball up," Williams said.
Stanton, who is heating up and helping the previously beleaguered Marlins to five straight wins, should have been the third out of the inning. But as the Nats' recent luck would have it, the next batter Adeiny Hechavarria lined a three-run triple off Nats starter Gio Gonzalez, a product of nearby Hialeah, Fla., to erase an early 1-0 Nats lead built on a Harper home run.
This continued a trend for the Nats, who are on quite a streak of opening floodgates. But the worrisome thing about this team isn't just the way it has played, it's the way some players responded later.
It is only 19 games (12 percent of the season). They do have the best rotation in baseball, and a lot more talent around the field. They've suffered worse defeats, much worse, than this one in late April.
Some of the veteran Nats seemed to get that. Werth, Max Scherzer, Harper, Dan Uggla, and Gonzalez are among those by their demeanor who all seem to understand that the world isn't ending, not just yet, anyway.
They aren't happy, sure, but they understand that there's still a lot of talent and time here. This team should still win its division going away. More than 80 percent of the season is to be played, and this roster is nothing short of stacked.
But too many in that clubhouse look like they are taking it too hard. They are the overwhelming favorites. This should be a very confident group. But it doesn't seem that way, at least not all the way around.
Ramos "politely declined comment" on his game-turning miscue, and not too much should be read into that. It happens. But many others seemed to be hanging their heads.
Werth, who just got back and is hitting in bad luck, remains a spokesman. Some of the players should listen to what he has to say.
"When it rains it pours. Things aren't going our way right now. But if you're not lucky, you've got to change your luck," Werth said. "You've got to make it happen -- do something to start the fire."
Werth insisted it's not about the team's makeup. And indeed, they have come back before. In recent years they have been an excellent second-half team, and that says something good about them.
"It's not a character issue," Werth said. "It's a good group. We get along well, and there's something to be said for that."
It's also a long season, and there should be too much talent in that room for this not to be not only a very good team but also a playoff team. They aren't fielding or hitting so far (in addition to their defensive woes, they were 22nd in runs, 23rd in OPS and 24th in on-base percentage and slugging percentage going into the day). But there's no reason to believe this should continue.
This is a team that may feel snake bit at this time. Whenever they err, the other team seems to capitalize. But it's early. They have three aces.
They just look like a group that needs a reminder about how good they are. Or should be.
One scout speculated just the opposite. He said it's like they're "out there going through the motions like they expect that since they are the favorites they are going to win."
But he wasn't in that clubhouse. The last thing they appear to be is an overconfident group.
Afterward, Williams did recall that they didn't start very well last year, when they still wound up with the best record in the National League. And maybe they can do it again.
They certainly should. It's quite an embarrassment of riches when the very accomplished Gonzalez is your No. 5 starter, following Scherzer, Jordan Zimmermann, Stephen Strasburg and Doug Fister in what looks like an all-time great rotation.
Williams mentioned the loss of the top third of their lineup to start the season -- Werth and Denard Span are back and Anthony Rendon, a key player, is working his way back via rehab -- and how "it takes times to get in the flow." And all that is true. But Williams added, correctly, "Nobody cares if we've got guys on the DL."
That's true in any case. But when you add the game's biggest free agent in Scherzer to a team that already had arguably the game's best rotation, you don't invite special sympathy.
And right now, a lot of the guys in that clubhouse do look like they could use a hug.
No, it's not a positive start. They've wasted some very good pitching with some very bad hitting and defense, and even a bonehead play here or there. And many of them in there look like they're about to cry.
At the very least, they look in need of a pep talk, someone or something to remind them how great they should be.
