With their disappointing loss yesterday, the Washington Nationals are now 10-11, under .500 for the first time since 2011. While it is April, and it is of course, very very early, it is still a blow to the excitement that the start of this season held.

Being a Nationals fan at one time meant having guarded enthusiasm, wanting to be proud of a team that loses 100 games is never easy to do. Then, in the last two years, it had meant having guarded confidence, we were a franchise moving in the right direction, but it was still hard to believe that it would actually come to fruition. Then, this year, the local and National media told us it was ok to wear our Curly W with pride, to boast to everyone that Washington was the favorite to win the World Series in 2013. It was a freeing feeling, not having to justify your fandom to anyone else, to have others envy your team’s prospect of playing into deep October. Being a Nats fan meant being excited.

While not much has really changed since Opening Day for the Washington Nationals or their fan base, the one thing that is gone, at least for now, is that feeling of confidence that was soaring high in mid-March. The 10-11 record isn’t as daunting as the truth that the team just isn’t playing well, and that the functions of the team that we thought were its strongest pieces, are actually the parts that are falling apart. That’s just a scary truth that is hard to combat.

Yesterday afternoon’s 4-2 loss was a perfect microcosm of everything that has Washington fans scared this April. The club had their ace, possibly the best pitcher in baseball on the mound in an effort to put a stop to a losing streak that threatened to drop them below .500. Stephen Strasburg, the head of what was thought to be an invincible rotation, gave up three earned runs, all in the first inning, putting the Nats in a hole they couldn’t dig out of.  For the 24-year-old, it was the fourth straight game he’d given up 2 or more runs, and the third game out of five total that he’d allowed three or more. He now has four straight losses.

It’s becoming more and more evident that as Strasburg goes, it seems so does the Nationals.

But what’s most interesting is that even though Strasburg has lost four straight games, he hasn’t pitched horrendously. He still has a 3.16 ERA, and has 28 strikeouts to only 8 walks. The problem for him has been, as it has for the entire Nationals team, is that he is clumping together spurts of bad luck, bad defense, and bad performance, into short but horribly timed failures that are costing the team games. And that’s just been the story for the entire Washington team this year.

You can look at the numbers and say that the bullpen has been bad, the defense has been awful, and the offense has been streaky, but what it really just feels like is that everyone on this squad, perhaps even the fans, are still in a terrible hangover from October 13, 2012.

Someone get me a cup of coffee.

It was an ugly one offensively once again for the Nationals as they were shut out by the Cardinals at home. Davey was frustrated following the loss, indicating it was time to “get a little mad” and that there would be some changes in the lineup for Wednesday’s afternoon game. Hopefully, it’s enough to give the Nats a boost. Until then, the Nats have to sit on a 2-0 loss as they fall to 10-10 on the season.

Ross Detwiler continued his early success by facing the minimum in the first, second, and third innings, despite allowing a base runner in each inning, by getting a Cardinals hitter ground into a double play to end each inning. He got out of the first on a broken bat roller by Matt Holliday and a 6-4-3 double play, the second on a nifty 4-6-3 double play started by a Danny Espinosa backhanded glove flip to Ian Desmond, and the third with an unconventional 2-6-4 double play on a failed Adam Wainwright sacrifice bunt attempt.

The fourth inning was a bit less smooth for Detwiler. He allowed hits to the first four hitters he faced, allowing the Cards to tack on two runs. Unlike the hits in the first three innings, none of these were cheap. Each batter made solid contact. He was able to get out of the jam by retiring Yadier Molina, David Freese, and Matt Carpenter to end the inning without any further damage, though.

As if one crazy double play wasn’t enough, in the fifth inning, Pete Kozma, once again, singled. Wainwright tried to sacrifice him over, and Rendon threw it to first for the easy out. Kozma, however, attempted to catch the Nats sleeping, going first to third on a sac bunt. LaRoche threw a bullet to Detwiler, who was covering third, to record the unusual sacrifice 5-4-1 double play. Got all that? Good.

Detwiler finished his day with a with a nice line: six innings, two runs, eight hits, two walks, and two strikeouts. Four Cardinals grounded into double plays on his watch. While you’d rather not see eight hits and two walks in six innings, he was able to manage and minimize the damage. It was up to the Nats offense to try to help him avoid an undeserved loss.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Nats had their first offensive opportunity of the game. Kurt Suzuki led off the inning with a single and, following a Roger Bernadina strikeout, went first-to-third on a Denard Span single. Jayson Werth sent a pop up to second on the first pitch of hit at bat, but Bryce Harper, the Nats only baserunner before this inning, drew a walk in a very patient at bat to load the bases for Adam LaRoche. LaRoche quickly fell behind 0-2, but he got the count back in his favor before striking out for the third time in the game to end the rally.

Henry Rodriguez came in to relieve Detwiler, and he pitched exceptionally well. He allowed just one base hit in two innings of work. He struck out two batters in his second inning, and though he committed a balk to advance Shane Robinson to second, it caused no real damage. He’s been pitching much better lately. He’s only given up a run in one of his last six games, and he now has a very reasonable 3.24 ERA.

The Nats tried to threaten again in the eighth. Steve Lombardozzi, who is now hitting .357 on the season and is doing his best to find his way into the lineup more often, dropped another broken bat single over the first baseman. A nice slide by Lombo and Span’s speed broke up a double play, and Span advanced to second on a wild pitch. Werth wasn’t able to get the job done, though, grounding to short to end the inning.

Harper wasn’t ready for this game to end without pulling out all the stops in the ninth. He singled down the right field line to lead off the inning on what, for any other player, would probably be a single. He stretched it into a double, though it was a very close play at second. It probably wasn’t the best decision given the circumstances, but he made it work.

Adam LaRoche stood as a statue as he struck out looking, his fourth strikeout of the game, and Ian Desmond popped out to second. Chad Tracy took the first pitch and flew out to right to end the game, ending the final attempt at a rally for the game.

It’s hard to draw positives from a game where a team got shut out and mustered just four hits, but there are two things to take from it. The pitching was absolutely great, and the defense showed no signs of wavering. They turned four double plays successfully, including a couple of non-traditional ones, and LaRoche made two great plays at first, one in foul territory and one pick on a grounder to end the eighth.

Offensively, though, the Nats are just pressing. The hard hit balls, and there are a few, are going right at opposing fielders, and good, patient hitters have stopped taking pitches and are rolling over terrible pitches. The Nats hitters will work their way out of it, but it is not fun to watch in the mean time.

I've seen lots of reaction from people about the Nationals disappointing start this April. With all of the expectations surrounding the Nats entering the 2013 season, people have taken to extreme levels of concern over this season's struggles relative to the feeling of last season's success. The Nationals, as far as record, got off to an extremely hot start in 2012. They were 12-4 by this point last year while they're 10-9 so far this season. However, there are a host of reasons why, despite your inclination to panic, you should step way, way off the ledge.

- Run Support: Last season, Nats scored 74 runs in all of April. So far this year, they've scored exactly 74 runs, and there are still eight games left this month. The Nats are going far eclipse their runs scored last April, and some are still concerned about last of run support. Imagine how concerned they'd be last season, a season when the Nats ultimately won 98 games, if the pitching wasn't quite as good in April.

- Strength of Schedule: Last April, the Nats started the seasons with the Cubs, Mets, Reds, Astros, Marlins, and Padres. Every team except for the Reds finished below .500 out of that crop last season. This April, the Nats started with the Marlins, Mets, Reds, White Sox, Braves, and Cardinals. Of those teams, just the Marlins and Mets finished below .500 last season, and the Mets are off to an extremely hot start this year, scoring 25 more runs already than the Nationals have, and they're currently sitting in second place in the NL East.

It makes sense that the Nats have a worse record than they did last season at this point. They're playing better teams. April is arguably the hardest month on the Nats schedule all season, and May is no slouch either. Things get a lot more friendly as the summer wears on, so unlike last year, the Nats may not blow their competition away with a huge lead early in the season.

- Strengths (Temporarily) Became Weaknesses: The reason the Nationals had such a dominant April was certainly affected by their opponents, but pitching was also historically good and the defense was nothing like it has been so far this season. The offense struggled a whole lot last April, much worse than this year, but they were able to get by on that pitching and defense.

This year, the pitching hasn't met expectations early, and the defense has committed the most errors in baseball. Both of these things will work themselves out as the season wears on. It may not be possible for the pitching to be as good as it was in 2012, but players typically, except for a few outliers, simply don't forget how to play defense. Those numbers will even out in a big way.

Only a few players on the 25-man roster, including Bryce Harper, Ross Detwiler, Jordan Zimmermann, have actually met their elevated expectations this season. With most of the guys on the team, including Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Dan Haren, Ryan Zimmerman, and a bunch of bullpen and other position players, the best is yet to come. Being frustrated after a loss or a string of losses is natural, but claiming the season is over in April with 143 games remaining and a team that has a better than .500 record is not.

Ever since the Cardinals unceremoniously disposed of the Nationals in the 2012 National League Division Series, this series had been circled on many Nats fans’ calendars. There were story lines of redemption not only from the team, but from one player in particular, Drew Storen. Only Storen was able to get that satisfaction, though, as the Nats dropped this one 3-2.

Pete Kozma took over right where left off last October, dropping a ball over the head of Danny Espinosa for a single in the first inning. Matt Carpenter walked after a couple pitchers that looked like strikes were called balls, and Allen Craig laced a ball that sent Denard Span crashing off the centerfield wall, but he was unable to make the catch. It was a two RBI double that gave the Cardinals an early 2-0 lead.

In the third, Kurt Suzuki walked to become the Nats first base runner of the game, and he stole second and got to third on an overthrown ball by the catcher. Despite the Nats catcher trying to generate some momentum with his legs, something you don’t hear often, Dan Haren struck out on the very next pitch, which was followed by Span rolling over a first-pitch fastball to quickly stamp out any thought of a rally.

The Nats offense came to life for the first time in 13 innings of baseball in the fourth inning. Jayson Werth led the inning off with a single, and he scored on a laced double to center field by Ian Desmond. It was Desmond’s 12th extra base hit of the season. Anthony Rendon, in his home debut, logged his first career MLB hit, a line drive opposite field double, that scored Desmond and tied the game at two.

Haren had a solid first five innings, giving up just two runs, but the wheels fell completely off in the sixth. He hit Matt Holliday to start the inning, followed by back-to-back singles by Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina, who drove in Holliday, making it at 3-2 game. He then walked David Freeze to load the bases.

Craig Stammen entered into an impossibly difficult situation, bases loaded with none out, and miraculously, he didn’t allow a runner to score. He got Jon Jay to ground back to Adam LaRoche for a 3-2-3 double play, and the Nats chose to intentionally walk Kozma to get to the pitcher, who Stammen struck out to get of the inning unscathed. He pitched a great seventh, too, completing yet another outing by the versatile righty reliever.

The Nats looked to have something going in the bottom of the seventh with two outs after a single by Danny Espinosa and a walk by Suzuki. Chad Tracy blooped a ball in to shallow right center on a broken bat, and Cardinals CF Jon Jay went a long, long way to make a very nice grab to end the inning.

Span got something going early in the eighth with a leadoff infield single. Bryce Harper walked following a Werth strikeout, but neither Adam LaRoche nor Desmond were able to get anything going. LaRoche rolled over a first pitch against Trevor Rosenthal, who was having trouble finding the zone, and Desmond took two pitches, the first and last of his at bat, right down the middle of the plate.

The best thing to happen in this game for the Nats is what took place in the top of the ninth inning, though. Drew Storen entered the game to face the Cardinals for the first time since last October’s Game 5 meltdown, and he would face Pete Kozma to lead off the inning. Storen struck Kozma out looking, perhaps ending a very unfortunate chapter in Storen’s young career.

Storen finished a 1-2-3 inning, but the Nats were unable to come back in the ninth as they dropped their second straight game and fell to 10-9 on the season. Both the Nats and Cardinals will have, arguably, their best pitchers so far this season on the mound tomorrow. Ross Detwiler (1-0, 0.90 ERA) will take on Cards ace Adam Wainwright (3-1, 2.48 ERA) at 7:05 pm at Nationals Park.

To kick off their final home stand of the month, the Washington Nationals (10-8) will face the St. Louis Cardinals (10-8) in a series that is guaranteed to stir up conversations about 2012’s postseason.

The two teams have identical records, are both second in their respective divisions (the Cardinals are tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL Central), and are both considered 2013 postseason contenders, all of which should garner intrigue for the first of six highly competitive games between the two teams.  

The Nationals went 4-3 against the Cardinals in the 2012 regular season, and this will be their first face-off since the National League Division Series last October. But there is no need to delve into the gory details of Game 5, as sports commentators will likely spend enough time doing throughout this series. Everyone knows what happened. Last season is in the past, and the Nationals are looking toward the future.

Boz Says It’s Still Not Time To Panic

With this matchup will undoubtedly come lots of postseason references and predictions. And though the Nationals may not look much like a postseason-caliber team right now, considering their recent string of losses, it is important to remember that we aren’t even one month into the season. There are still 144 baseball games left to play before October, and much can change and develop in that many games.

Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell wrote today that the Nats still have plenty of time to be successful after their unsteady start to the season.

“I can’t tell you how often I’ve seen highly-touted teams start the year frustrating themselves and their fans for 100 or more games,” Boswell said. “You can make a long list of teams that started a year 52-50, then finished 40-20 to go 92-70, then made the post-season and went a long way.”

Hopefully it doesn’t take 100 games for the Nationals to return to the level of performance they played at for most of last year. But either way, Boz has seen a lot of baseball, and he is emphasizing that there is no need to panic, assuming the Nats eventually do play up to their potential.

“If they play as they have so far, they will certainly not be at .500 on June 2^nd,” after playing through the toughest part of their schedule, Boswell said. “If they play as they are capable of playing, they will be well over .500 by then and may pick up steam the rest of the season.”

Because of the uncomplimentary things the Cardinals said about the Nats at the conclusion of their season last year, Boswell wonders “if playing the (hated) Cards snaps the Nationals out of their sloppy play funk.” Nats fans are anxious to start seeing their team dominate again as it did in 2012, and there would be no better team to find that dominance against than the Cardinals.

Holding Out For Haren

Dan Haren will get the ball and yet another chance for redemption in the series opener.

The Nats new addition has yet to have a quality start. He’s lasted 4.0, 5.0 and 4.1 innings through his first three starts, and the 26 hits and five home runs he’s given up have contributed to skyrocketing his ERA up to 8.10.

However, Haren has had success in the past against his former team. He is 4-0 against St. Louis in his career with a 3.65 ERA, and current Cardinals hitters are batting .288 of him. He is going to need to make an adjustment from his last starts, though, if he wants to continue to be successful against the hot-hitting Redbirds, who despite a low-offense-producing start to this season had one of the best offenses in 2012.

Pitching coach Steve McCatty thinks Haren is trying too hard to be something he’s not, according to MLB.com, and Haren himself believes that as long as he keeps trying to make good pitches, there is a chance his fortunes could turn around.

"I feel good, so it's just a matter of translating to good numbers out there,” Haren said. “Baseball is a crazy game. As bad as it is going now, it can change in an instant. I just have to remain positive."

Remaining positive will be key for Nats players and fans alike during this series, as the ghosts of Game 5 will remain until the Nationals are able to expel them permanently.

In The Zone

Bryce Harper (LF) .421 AVG, .500 OBP, .842 SLG, 2 HR (last five games)

Who’s Hot?

Yadier Molina (C) .450 AVG, .476 OBP, .550 SLG, 4 RBI (last five games)

Carlos Beltran (RF) .375 AVG, .400 OBP, .792 SLG, 4 RBI, 3 HR (last six games)

Who’s Not?

Jon Jay (CF) .105 AVG, .150 OBP, .158 SLG, 7 SO (last five games)

Pete Kozma (SS) .133 AVG, .222 OBP, .200 SLG, 1 RBI (last five games)

Probable Starters

4/22, Dan Haren (1-2, 8.10 ERA, .388 BAA, 5 HR) vs. Shelby Miller (2-1, 1.96 ERA, .169 BAA, 18 SO)

4/23, Ross Detwiler (1-0, 0.90 ERA, .224 BAA, 11 SO) vs. Adam Wainwright (3-1, 2.48 ERA, .279 BAA, 28 SO)

4/24, Stephen Strasburg (1-3, 2.96 ERA, .227 BAA, 21 SO) vs. Jaime Garcia (1-1, 3.22 ERA, .267 BAA, 22 SO)

After getting swept by the Braves at home, the Nationals went on a six-game road trip against the Miami Marlins and New York Mets, two teams that most of the NL East hopes to beat up on throughout the course of the season. What the Nats did over the last week wouldn't be considered beating up on anyone, unfortunately. They split the roadtrip 3-3 and lost the weekend series to the Mets. It's too early to be worried about the overall arc of the season, but there are question marks.

Grade: D+

- The Nats defense has allowed six errors in the last six games and has averaged an error per game already this season. They lead the major leagues with 18 errors, which is alarming considering the expectations of both the infield and outfield.

- Ryan Zimmerman has taken yet another early season trip to the disabled list, this time with hamstring issue. If this time off allows him to get focused on defense and healthy in general, it'll be worth the 15-days without their franchise player.

- Outside of Ross Detwiler and Jordan Zimmermann, the Nats starters, another of their numerous strengths, have been inconsistent all season. Stephen Strasburg hasn't had a bad year, but he hasn't been as good as people expect of him. Gio Gonzalez has been blown up in two games and has started walking guys with regularity once again. Dan Haren is nowhere near locked into his good stuff yet.

- Ian Desmond looks lost at shortstop at times. He's already committed seven errors, which is almost half as many as he committed in all of 2012, when he was an NL Gold Glove Award finalist.

Player Of The Week: Bryce Harper

Harper is still scorching hot. Even in a week where he battled the flu and missed a game, he posted a .421/.500/.842 slash line, hit two monster home runs, and had a four-hit game when he was still battling the flu. He gets a pass on Sunday's fielding error with a performance like this at the plate.

Honorable Mention: Steve Lombardozzi

Lombardozzi spelled Danny Espinosa while he was out nursing that hand injury, and he was a more than acceptable replacement at second base. He accumulated 20 plate appearances this week in four starts and a few pinch hitting opportunities, and he hit .350 and drove in three runs. He's not going to wow you with power or walk a lot, but Lombardozzi may be one of the best contact hitters the Nats have on their roster, and he had a great week.

It's finally here. The Nats Talk On The Go podcast has hit its first real milestone, and we've commemorated it with a really, really long episode. We were forced to take last week off, so we had a lot to discuss around the Nats recent struggles and triumphs. We talk about pitching, defense, and heap praise upon Bryce Harper, Ross Detwiler, and Jordan Zimmermann. There's a lot more in this epic episode, too. Enjoy, and thanks for listening.

It was Anthony Rendon's major league debut on Sunday, which certainly didn't bring on the national fanfare that Bryce Harper's debut did almost exactly one year ago, but it certainly garnered a lot of excitement from Nationals fans. Despite some very strong pitching by the Nats, the offense couldn't come alive as they dropped a 2-0 game to the Mets. The Nats are now 10-8 on the season.

Jordan Zimmermann was on the mound for the Nats, and he wasn't as efficient as he was for his complete game outing last start, but a lot of that just wasn't his fault. On the happy note, in the first inning, Anthony Rendon got his first defensive chance in the second at-bat. He made a great catch in foul territory over the railing in the Nats dugout. That's about the end of the positives to draw from the defense, though, on a three error game.

The Mets got on the board in the second inning when John Buck tattooed a ball to the second deck in left center field for his seventh home run of the year. That's not a typo. Buck is raking early this year. In the fourth, David Wright scored on a Mike Baxter sacrifice fly, giving the Mets a 2-0 lead and ending the scoring for the day.

In terms of positive events from the day, there are a few. Zimmermann threw 96 pitches in five innings, but he gave up just two runs. Uncharacteristically, he walked three batters, but he got himself out of several jams created mostly by defensive snafus. The Nats bullpen also performed admirably behind Zach Duke and Henry Rodriguez, who guys who struggled to start the season. Neither Duke nor HRod allowed a base runner. Duke went two innings with four strikeouts, and Rodriguez pitched the eighth with two strikeouts, both of them looking.

The negatives definitely outweighed those positives, though. The Nats committed three errors, which was their second three-error game of the young season. Ian Desmond committed his seventh error on a throw that was offline, but perhaps catchable by Adam LaRoche at first. He has almost half as many errors this year as he had all of last season, and it's only the first month. Bryce Harper committed his second error on a totally un-Harper-like play. He overran a ball and then showed no hustle to get the ball into the infield, allowing Mike Baxter to get to second base. Rendon also had an error in his MLB debut on a missed catch.

In the Nats only real offensive chance of the game in the eighth inning, Mets setup man Scott Rice allowed Steve Lombardozzi and Denard Span to reach on a single and a walk, respectively, and he was behind Jayson Werth 3-0 with no outs. Werth decided to take a hack at that 3-0 pitch, grounding into a 6-4-3 double play. Harper struck out on five pitches, none of which were fastballs and maybe one of which was in the zone, to end the inning and the Nats rally.

In the post-game press conference, when Davey Johnson was asked how he felt about Werth swinging at the 3-0 pitch, he said, "I'm not gonna get into that, okay?" That's all you need to know about how Davey felt regarding his decision there.

The Nats have averaged an error per game so far early this season. It's the team's biggest weakness early on, and it's one that has to get resolved quickly. Offenses get cold, pitching struggles from time to time, but defense should always be what a good team can lean back on, and right now, the Nats can't do that.