Hey guys! CK here, with a quick recap breaking down last night’s game against the Mets in the Saturday leg of a 4 game series.

The Nats lost again, putting up only four total hits in a 5-0 shutout loss to New York, bringing the team down to 0-3 to start the season. This is honestly what we all expected, and it doesn’t seem like much is getting better anytime soon.

On the bright side, young pitcher Joan Adon looked promising to start the evening, with no runs allowed through four innings. Yeah. Until he was blown up to open the fifth by a Pete Alonso grand slam, which got him yanked. Ouch. Despite this, Adon still went the deepest of any Nats starter in this series so far. Things unraveled in the fifth, yes, but Joan still happens to be showing plenty of promise that will give Nats fans something to look forward to in a season where there won’t be much to spark joy. The bullpen mostly held afterward, giving up only one run for the rest of the evening, but with the offense failing to get going there wasn’t much for them to do. Kyle Finnegan and Tanner Rainey both did look pretty solid, which does happen to be good news.

Chris Bassitt made his first Mets start count, throwing six strong innings, before a combination of relievers was able to complete the shutout with only one more hit allowed in the bottom of the ninth. While Juan Soto was able to get two hits, he matched the total of the rest of the lineup. At least Cesar Hernandez and Josh Bell haven’t been bad so far.

The Nationals’ front half of the lineup has been quite good to open the season, but it’s been noted by our friend Matt Weyrich on Twitter that the back half of the batting order (6-9) has gone 1-37 with 18 strikeouts to open the season. Makiel Franco, the current third baseman, is 0-10 to start. And for whatever reason, Riley Adams was catching today over Keibert Ruiz. Sure, catchers always need a break on occasion, there wasn’t that great of a reason to sit him tonight when that easily could have been done tomorrow. 

Overall, this team has an incredible amount of holes in both offense and defense, with pitching depth looking very bad as well. Even though Victor Robles made an insane catch in the 3rd inning, that doesn’t mean he’s succeeding at the plate. It’s hard to tell exactly what this team is capable of except losing game after game. Let’s just put Yadiel Hernandez and Luis Garcia in at this point. It can’t be much worse than Franco and Escobar.

The Nats finish the series today at 1:35, with Erick Fedde facing off against Carlos Carrasco. Tune in for the finale when DC tries to win its first game and salvage a portion of the series.