The Nats have lost six straight, they’re under .500 and they need a change

With each passing day for the Washington Nationals, it’s starting to look like Bryce Harper’s “Where’s my ring?” quote from the preseason may actually be more like, “Give me a ring in October … if you want to hang out, because my schedule will be clear.”

The Nats, once World Series favorites after adding the top free agent on the market in Max Scherzer, are in free fall. The lost 5-0 on Sunday to the San Francisco Giants, falling under .500 (58-59) for the first time since May 6. They’ve lost six straight. They’re 4.5 games behind the first-place New York Mets in the NL East. They’re 9.5 back for a wild-card spot.

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(AP) Forget the World Series, the Nats may not make the playoffs. And for a team that’s been saddled with win-it-all hopes the past few seasons and met with some degree of disappointment each time, missing the postseason would be cause for heads to roll.

The Nats themselves still see the talent and potential on the roster. GM Mike Rizzo is trying to dress things up nicely to hide the fact that his team is a giant disappointment right now. From James Wagner of the Washington Post:

“This is a professional group that knows how to play the game and knows how to win,” General Manager Mike Rizzo said as a quiet clubhouse packed up before a charter flight to the team’s next stop in Denver. “They’ve been in slumps before. We’re confident in their ability levels. I’m confident that they’ll snap out of it and that we’re going to be judged by what we are at the end of the season, not August.”

Nobody from the Nats is saying it, but they have to know they’re running out of time to fix things. We’re in the second half of August, which is practically September. Six weeks is enough time to make a run, there’s no doubt about it. But the question is, what will actually awaken these sluggish Nats?

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After Sunday’s loss, Rizzo told MLB.com’s Bill Ladson that he doesn’t expect to fiddle with the roster any. Manager Matt Williams said he’s hoping Monday’s day off will help them “come back fresh.” That would be nice. The Nats are hitting .222 since the All-Star break. They’re 4-12 in August, having been outscored 83-59.

There’s one solution that Nats fans seem to be in growing favor of as the losses mount and that’s firing Williams, their second-year manager. That’s somewhat hasty — like when Don Mattingly was on the hot seat two years ago because his slumping team wasn’t meeting expectations. But it’s pretty obvious something has to change with the Nats.

(Getty Images) Rizzo, for what it’s worth, gave a wishy-washy answer Sunday when asked whether he’d give Williams a public endorsements. (Because those always end well). From Ladson at MLB.com:

Asked if he should give Williams a vote of confidence or say something publically about his skipper, Rizzo said, “I have nothing but complimentary things to say about our manager since we hired him.”

The Nats will finish off August playing a bunch of subpar teams: The Colorado Rockies, with whom they start a four-game series Tuesday in Denver, then the Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres and Miami Marlins.

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If the Nats can’t show some vigor in the next week or so, Rizzo might just be running of “complimentary things” to say about Williams and may be forced to say something else. “You’re fired.”

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