Washington Nationals’ lineup for 2nd of 3 with St. Louis Cardinals in D.C.

Davey Martinez and Co. try to even things up after last night’s loss to the Cardinals.

Davey Martinez’s club had their opportunities last night, but two three-run innings for the St. Louis Cardinals were enough, and Washington’s Nationals went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position and seven left on base in what ended up a 6-2 loss in the nation’s capital.

The Nats jumped out to an early lead, with two singles to start the second, a groundout and a sac fly, as the home team manufactured a run early, but that is all they got out of their two-on, no-out opportunity in the inning, and trailing 3-1 in the fourth, they put two on again, with no one out, but three quick outs followed.

It was 6-1 Cards in the bottom of the sixth, when César Hernández doubled, moved up on a balk, and scored on another sac fly, but they failed to make anything out of yet another two-on, no-out opportunity.

“We could have had some opportunities to score some runs there, we had a couple guys on third base, couldn’t get them in, but they came up with some home runs late, but like I said, when you get opportunities like that you’ve got to scratch and claw to get a couple runs in,” Martinez explained.

“We had some opportunities to score some runs, we couldn’t do it, so…”

So, the Nationals lost their 18th of 23 games in July, and their 37th of 52 games in D.C. this season.

They’ll try to even things up in the second of three with the Cards tonight, at 7:15 PM ET in Nationals Park.

[ed. note – “You might notice Paolo Espino is starting tonight’s game. Erick Fedde, who was originally scheduled to start was scratched and placed on the 15-Day IL (retroactive to July 27th) with right shoulder inflammation this afternoon, and Cory Abbott was called up from Triple-A Rochester.”]

HERE’S THE NATS LINEUP FOR TONIGHT’S MATCHUP WITH THE CARDS: