All spring training, the Nationals have berated themselves for last season’s poor fundamentals, for their scatterbrained baserunning and poor situational hitting, turning prime offensive opportunities into deflating fizzles.

They’ve also worried that their manager, a rookie last year, sometimes didn’t have a feel for late-inning pitching decisions.

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So, how did Game 1 go? The Nats turned what they know should have been a 2-1 win for Max Scherzer over 2018 Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom into a 2-0 defeat to the Mets because they simply couldn’t put the bat on the ball when the situation called for it.

Before the game, Manager Davey Martinez praised his team for learning just this ability, saying the Nats would make better contact, especially when needed, and had “struck out less than any team in spring training.”

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Three times, the Nats faced that classic get-him-in-from-third spot with fewer than two out —with an extra advantage: Their runners on third were either Victor Robles or Trea Turner, two of MLB’s fastest men. So the Mets, with a 1-0 lead, played their infield back, virtually conceding a tying run. The Nats demurred.

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Once, Turner fanned, chasing a high fastball that would have been ball four. Once, Anthony Rendon chopped out weakly to third, advancing no one. Once, Juan Soto fanned, chasing a low change-up that would have been ball four.

In addition, with Turner on second and no outs in a 1-0 game in the sixth, Rendon grounded out to the left side on an outside pitch, advancing no one. Situational-hitting pop quiz on the first day of school: Grade D.

And once, on Rendon’s chop to third, Robles misunderstood his job, which was to break for home on contact on any grounder to draw a throw to the plate and avoidan inning-ending double play. Then, at least, Soto could face deGrom with two on and two out.

“I got a little confused. In the middle of the moment, I realized I’d make a mistake,” said Robles, who broke back toward third, not toward home, then tried to atone by reversing himself and heading home — hours too late. He was out by 30 feet for that inning-ending double play he was supposed to prevent.

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“It’s a learning moment for me,” said Robles, who had a double off the left field wall on a full-court deGrom slider, something many never achieve, as well as a diving catch of a liner in center field to rob the Mets of a hit.

Martinez’s charges weren’t the only ones who looked like they still needed to continue their remedial spring work. The manager got in the act, too.

He let Scherzer hit for himself in the seventh (he fanned), then take the mound again in the eighth. Scherzer admitted that he quickly became fatigued and allowed a walk that turned into a vital Mets insurance run. That run scored when Martinez bypassed Tony Sipp, the left-handed specialist signed specificallyto face elite lefty hitters like Robinson Cano, Freddie Freeman and Bryce Harper, to bring in left-handed generalist Matt Grace to face — yes — Cano, who already had a solo homer off Scherzer.

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Of course, Cano, because this is baseball and it will always try to interrupt the conversation to say, “See, I told you the manager messed up,” singled in a run.

The packed house of 42,263 knows Sipp was available. He warmed up later.

Adam Eaton, who reached base twice, summed up the game sensibly: “Heck of a battle. You don’t get many chances against deGrom . . . We had a couple and didn’t execute. It will come. Big crowd today . . . heart rates will be a little more comfortable on Saturday.”

Yes, even big leaguers hear the noise, see the flyover and want to please, sometimes too much.

“I swung at some bad pitches,” conceded Turner who, ahead in the count 2-0, struck himself out by swinging at three deGrom fastballs. “It looks like a ‘rise ball.’ On the last one I took a chance. Just gotta stay in the zone.”

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In the sixth inning, after Rendon failed to Turner with no outs, Turner stole third, leaving the tying run 90 feet away.

This time, Soto, the team’s best bat-handler, was the one to fizzle. “I just tried to find a way . . . That [strikeout] happened today. Nobody’s perfect,” said Soto through a translator.

The Nats were anxious to be accountable. But Martinez sometimes seems interested in being preemptively protective of his players and matter-of-fact in describing his decisions as obvious when they are actually, you know, decisions.

After discussing some of the obvious missed opportunities, Martinez added, “But other than that, I think we played really well. We’re facing one of the best pitchers in the game, and we were in the game the whole game.”

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Unfortunately, “other than that” encompasses the plays that decided the game. The Nats did not play “really well,” or even “well.” And being close, or “playing hard,” doesn’t count for a team with a $200 million payroll. The players know it. The manager doesn’t have to worry about acknowledging the obvious.

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As for using Grace in the situation for which the 35-year-old Sipp has existed for many years, Martinez explained, “I like Grace’s two-seamer against Cano, and he made a great pitch. Cano just got jammed and blooped one into left field.”

That’s true. But it’s also obvious that Grace had a full spring training to prepare for Opening Day while Sipp has been in hurry-up mode just to be available. Why not nod toward what ardent fans know: Grace was used in Sipp’s role because Sipp just got here. Grace is good, so we rolled with Grace. Didn’t work.

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That’s not an absence of positivity or a breach of team trust. It’s just refusing to sprinkle a gallon of A1 sauce on a scorched burger and call it fillet mignon.

This is only one game. But it points out that the Nats will have to scratch for runs against top pitching, using small ball and sound fundamentals, especially tough right-handers like deGrom, in their first year without lefty Bryce Harper.

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Both GM Mike Rizzo and Martinez insist that the Nats offense is “balanced” because it has lots of good hitters, even if only two of the regulars hit left-handed — Eaton and Soto — with bench-bat Matt Adams the only other lefty thump.

No, the Nats are not “balanced” in any meaningful sense. That is, and will remain a problem. But it can be dealt with — once acknowledged.

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The Nats will have many more games like this one, starting Saturday with Stephen Strasburg against Noah Syndergaard. There will be loads of fine pitching, lots of improved Nats defense, the option to use speed throughout the Washington attack and an emphasis — day after day — on executing fundamentals at an A or B level, not a C or D level.

This was a D. It’ll get a lot better. Because it better.