Of course, this season any inning might coincide with a Nats implosion. In the past 12 days, they have given up six runs in an inning three times and five runs in an inning twice. In almost every case, Nats firemen either started the blaze or helped turn it into an inferno. Whatever Manager Dave Martinez tried blew up.

That’s partly bad pitchers. But it also means that Martinez continues to fail at one of the most important managerial tasks — building and maintaining the best possible bullpen out of the materials on hand. No bullpen should have a 6.52 ERA, especially when Sean Doolittle, Kyle Barraclough and (in one appearance) Erick Fedde have a combined ERA of 1.05 . All the other relievers together have allowed 69 earned runs in 69 innings, which would be hard to do if MLB suddenly became a parent-pitch youth league. If you vote to fire Martinez, that’s Exhibit A.

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On Wednesday, to vary the modus of the misery, Washington starter Jeremy Hellickson allowed four runs to the Brewers in the very first inning, opening the door to the Nats’ 11th loss in their past 14 games.

The context of all these disasters has been a lineup that, until Anthony Rendon returned Tuesday, was without its No. 2, 3 and 4 hitters, as well as both of its platoon first basemen, who hit No. 5. That combination created a perfect nightmare in which the Nats scored few runs early to support their often-superb starting pitching, then waited with growing gloom as their relievers sealed a loss.

The result has been one of the most dismal 3-11 skids that a preseason contender with an almost $200 million payroll could imagine. If the Nats had not staged two long-shot comeback rallies, they’d have gone 1-13. In one win, they rallied from a 6-0 deficit to win on a walk-off homer; in another, after they blew a 5-3 lead, they came back to win, 10-8. Their other win required a 2-1 gem by Stephen Strasburg. That’s scary close to 0-14.

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Normally, this is the point at which I would talk confidently about the need, in baseball, for the long view and patience. I might write, sarcastically: If you are seven games behind with 126 games to play, like the Nats, and there is no team ahead of you that looks better than pretty good, then you should just go ahead and quit.

You’d know the real message: Pros don’t quit. In MLB, comebacks from seven games behind are only remarkable when they come in September. In May? Come on. I learned this my first seven years on the MLB beat, covering the Orioles. Five times in those seven years those O’s trailed by at least six games — yet they finished those seven seasons with a .588 winning percentage — a 95-win rate for a full year.

However, I refuse to apply the “it’s early” lessons of those Orioles to the current Nats, who make it seem as if the leaves are turning to autumn colors in May. Back then, Earl Weaver was the Orioles’ manager. His arrogance was like a protective cloak of confidence. He’d goad us reporters, demanding, “ ‘Bad start?’ Define ‘start.’ ” Is it a dozen games or the entire month of April? Is it May, too? We had no answer. But he did. “The start” was however damn well long it took for his team to get healthy and hot.

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Now, the Little Genius has passed away. And the friendly, upbeat Martinez — who, in two years, won’t say whether he prefers to be “Dave” or “Davey” in news stories (“either is fine”) — is no Weaver. In fact, he is 96-102 .

If one is looking for silver linings, advanced metrics provide one. The Nats are an awful 24th in ERA (4.94) but have MLB’s third-best Fielding Independent Pitching (3.70). That is nuts. A team’s ERA and FIP are usually close to identical. ERA can be distorted by blowout games or innings. FIP is supposed to hear signal through noise by focusing solely on things most within a pitcher’s control — strikeouts, unintentional walks, hit-by-pitches and home runs. It entirely removes results on balls hit into the field of play. If the Nats’ ERA were now 3.70, they’d have allowed 42 fewer runs in their first 35 games. In other words, if the FIP of the Nationals’ staff is a tipoff, they will be a very good team, maybe quite soon.

However, few Nats fans want to hear about a stat that explains away everything their lyin’ eyes have seen.

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In their current state, the Nats need three things. First, they must get healthy and then stay semi-healthy — something they have rarely done during this 2012-2019 period, despite how many games they have won.

The Nats are defensive about their injuries, especially General Manager Mike Rizzo, who suggests cross-examining ex-Nats who are now free to rip the team about the quality of the Washington medical and training staffs. Unfortunately, all that matters over long time spans is the number of games lost to injury. If it’s high, then you may have a problem, even if everybody thinks your docs are peachy. And, last year and this, the Nats have constantly had their bullpen, their lineup or their rotation demolished by injuries.

Second, the Nats need to admit that their bullpen plan for this year did not work. Maybe nobody can convince the Lerners that they should have signed free agent Craig Kimbrel eight weeks ago when closer Sean Doolittle publicly lobbied for it in this column and several Nats and front office members agreed with him.

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But Kimbrel isn’t the only reliever on earth. Even if Trevor Rosenthal isn’t a total loss this season, you need one more quality bullpen arm. That means a trade.

Finally, the Nats had a plan for a total roster rework after 2018. It was needed. Its aim was to make a transition from the NL East champion core of ’16-’17, which included both Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy , and Gio Gonzalez in the rotation, into one that integrated young talents such as Juan Soto, 20 , Victor Robles, 21, Carter Kieboom, 21, and shortstop Luis Garcia, 18, while figuring out the ultimate roles of two 25-year-old pitchers, Joe Ross and Fedde.

The goal was to make that transition while winning 90 games, give or take, and making a fifth Nationals postseason. But, no matter what, by 2020 and 2021, when Max Scherzer, Strasburg and Patrick Corbin are all still aboard, you had to figure out what the next iteration of these Nats would be and who would manage them.

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If 2019 was the last rodeo for these Nats, or even for ownership patriarch Ted Lerner, then swift moves — sometimes called “panic”— might be needed. But it’s not. The Nats need to make the correct decision, not the fast decision, about whether Martinez is their manager for 2020 and 2021. I doubt it. But I’m certain there’s no quick fix available — no magic manager — either already in house or waiting to be hired and dropped atop a team and staff he barely knows.

Get healthy. Get another reliever. Take a deep breath. Try to tough it out in this miserable May and stay within reach in what is now the worst division in baseball, not the best as predicted. It’s a dreary slog, but you did it to yourselves.

Fans have it tougher. They’re not getting paid. If what you’ve watched the past few weeks offends your sense of baseball-properly-played so badly that you just can’t take it anymore, then consider not watching those night games from L.A.

I may be right there not with you.