Because the runs were unearned, the Nats managed to blow a save for the 11th time and post their 13th bullpen loss, against only nine saves, while lowering their universe-worst bullpen ERA from 7.25 to 7.12.

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The Nats finished the first third of the season 22-32, with a 9½ -game deficit to the Phillies in the NL East, an eight-game deficit for the second NL wild-card spot, a less than 6 percent chance to make the playoffs and a 0.2 percent chance to win the World Series (according to Baseball Reference).

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“We’re playing well; we really are. It was unfortunate today we didn’t make two plays,” Manager Dave Martinez said. “But you know what? The boys are playing well. We’ll go to Atlanta, and we’re feeling good about ourselves.”

Don’t tell Max he’s feeling especially good right now.

“It’s frustrating. You reflect on the things you could have done to help the club more,” Scherzer said without a trace of irony or bitterness. He’d be entitled to barrels of both. He could hardly have done anything more, because his two-out RBI single in the fifth inning put the Nats ahead. With 102 strikeouts, the most in the National League, Scherzer may fan 300 for the second straight year.

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However, because he averaged an unusually high 112 pitches in his five previous May starts, Scherzer was lifted after 103 pitches — something the Nats need to consider soon with Patrick Corbin, who has also been throwing more pitches than ever. The cause? Avoid that bullpen! Martinez has been traumatized so badly that the team’s relievers imploded the season despite pitching the fewest innings of any bullpen in the majors.

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The two defensive errors in question were a botched attempt to pick up a sacrifice bunt by big first baseman Matt Adams and a wild high throw on a groundball to shortstop Trea Turner on which Adams couldn’t decide whether to jump or reach on tiptoe — and didn’t quite do either.

To their credit, the Nats continue to be accountable. Promising rookie Tanner Rainey, who would ideally be eased into the big leagues in low-leverage situations, walked the first batter he faced in the seventh inning. He scored to tie it at 2. “The leadoff walk is not acceptable,” Rainey said. “If the hitter beats you, that’s one thing. When you beat yourself, that’s another thing — entirely.”

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Turner’s error on a bad throw in the eighth is almost certainly a byproduct of rushing back after breaking the index finger on his throwing hand. He’s playing hurt for the team — the least bad choice. But he bats with his index finger off the bat. When he swings and misses, he often heaves the bat into the box seats. He’s hitting .204 since his return. Some throws are an adventure, too.

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Is the finger a problem? “No,” he said.

When will it be 100 percent again? “I couldn’t tell you,” he said.

Not soon.

One healthy and red-hot Nat, Juan Soto, had the most important at-bat of the game: bases loaded, down 3-2, two outs in the eighth. After working a full count, Soto hit a hard but routine line drive to left field to end the inning.

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“Beautiful, he lined out,” said Martinez, dead sincere.

So did Willie McCovey, with two runners on, to end the 1962 World Series.

Between positivity, which this beleaguered team may need, and Pollyanna, the line can become blurred, then tromped into the mud.

The architect of this year’s bullpen mess, Mike Rizzo, is an unlikely culprit. When he took over in 2009, the Nats had the worst bullpen in MLB (5.07). Since then, the Nats have had four bullpens in the top five in ERA and two more in the top 10. The worst Rizzo ’pen, until now, was in 2017 (21st, 4.41 ERA), but Dusty Baker won 97 games anyway.

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What Rizzo has wrought this year, and Martinez has been unable to manage, is almost inconceivable. Last year’s ’pen was mundane — 15th in ERA at 4.05. Oh, the joys of mediocrity. If this year’s Nats had a 4.05 bullpen, they would have allowed 54 fewer runs. Instead of a run differential of minus-31, they’d be plus-23 and probably have a record around 29-25. And Washington would be having a fun baseball summer.

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Instead, attendance on a national holiday that seems made for baseball was 21,048. The Nats have dropped from 11th in attendance last season (31,620) to 15th (27,628).

Great baseball comebacks are built on winning streaks. They often start slowly, almost in disguise, as a previously discombobulated team wins a few in a row against a genuinely bad team. That small winning streak becomes a springboard — or perhaps just a reminder to the team of how good it can be.

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In 2005, the Houston Astros started 21-35. Critics formed lines to declare the season dead. But the Astros battled to the last day to win 89 games, make the playoffs as a wild card and then ended up in the World Series. Last year, the Los Angeles Dodgers started miserably (16-26) and went to the World Series.

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But there is a huge, stomach-flipping difference between those teams and these Nats.

You can’t build even one long winning streak without a functional bullpen and a credible defense that can stand up to late-game pressure. Until you have the relievers you need and a defense you can trust, then the kind of winning streaks that the Nationals had in 2016 and ’17, when they won back-to-back NL East crowns, are not going to happen.

Here are the streaks the Nats had in 2016: 14-4, 14-4, 13-4 and 13-4. And in 2017: 16-6, 12-3 and 22-10.

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This year, the longest winning streak in the first third of the season was three games. And now that’s over.

The next 54 games probably will be some of the most important in this phase of the team’s history. That next trimester will end July 30 — a day before the trade deadline. The Nationals will be under a roster-wide examination at that time. And the grades must be far better — something like 32-22. Or painful changes will be made.