The Washington Nationals (4-8) drop their third straight series after scoring a season low, one run in the rubber match against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Nationals finished their six-game home stretch just 1-5 and allowed a total of 50 runs through the stretch, as the pitching continues to be the main problem for the Nationals. They are last in the league with a 6.06 team ERA and have held up the fourth-worst bullpen in the MLB through their first 12 games, with a 6.34 relieving ERA.

The batting has been the opposite story so far. The Nationals rank third in total runs as well as home runs. The team is batting .266 with a .770 OPS.

It was the batting that led the Nationals to the win in the first game of the series on Monday, 9-6.

Zack Littell started the game on the mound and had a solid outing, allowing only one earned run in five innings. Things would go downhill once the bullpen took over. Ken Waldichuk and Andre Granillo allowed five runs in three innings pitched to put the Nationals in a deficit.

They trailed 6-3 in the bottom of the eighth before James Wood, CJ Abrams and Brady House all knocked in home runs in a six-run inning to come back and win.

The rest of the series would not go as well, as the batting wouldn’t be able to make up for the pitching mistakes. On Tuesday, the Nationals entered the seventh inning with a 5-2 lead, but the bullpen wouldn’t be able to hold on.

PJ Poulin and Gus Varland would both allow home runs in the seventh and eighth innings, which would force the game into extra innings, where the Nationals would lose 7-6.

Cade Cavalli had a solid start, allowing one earned run in 4.2 innings pitched. Wood knocked his second home run of the series in the third inning. Curtis Mead went 3-for-4 from the plate with a home run. But none of it would be enough as the Nationals allow another late rally.

The Nationals would have the worst batting performance of the season in the Wednesday rubber match, as they would lose 6-1.

They finished with only four hits, with Wood knocking in two of them. Brady House, Daylen Lile and CJ Abrams finished the game 0-for-9 from the plate.

The pitching didn’t have a good night either way. Miles Mikolas made his third start of the season, after allowing 11 earned runs against the Dodgers in the previous series. Mikolas had his best start of the season but allowed two earned runs in three innings. He loaded the bases in both the first and second innings and was pulled from the game early for Brad Lord.

Lord allowed one run in three innings, while Cionel Pérez allowed one run in one inning pitched, and Cole Henry allowed the last two runs in his 1.2 innings pitched.

James Wood has gotten the engines running. He had two hits in every game this series, while knocking in two home runs. Wood walked three times as well this series and finished with only one strikeout. He showed a better approach against the Dodgers and was finding good contact through the last two series, so it was only a matter of time before the production caught up. He is now batting .216 on the season.

The starting pitching was strong. Zack Littell, Cade Cavalli and Miles Mikolas combined for 12.2 innings, where they allowed only four earned runs. Littell and Cavalli are now stacking good performances, and while I wouldn’t call any of Mikolas performances so far ‘good,’ this was the best one of the year so far.

Curtis Mead looks like a good acquisition. Mead had a phenomenal game in the Nationals' 7-6 extra innings loss. From the first base spot, he was 4-for-6 this series with a home run and two RBIs. The 25-year-old has made himself a real option to keep getting starts at first base.

The Bullpen continues to be bad. The Nationals have now had three series in a row where they have lost a game due to bad pitching in the final stretch of the game. Cionel Pérez and Andre Granillo both have an ERA of over 12.00, and they have both been in over five games. PJ Poulin, Gus Varland, Cole Henry and Clayton Beeter have all contributed to game-breaking innings through the first 12 games as well.

The Bullpen has been a problem, and there has yet to be a fix presented for it.

The Catcher position. Drew Millas and Keibert Ruiz got on base a combined three times in the series, and all of them came from Millas in the Nationals' Monday win. Both Millas and Ruiz are batting under .200 to start the season, with only two extra-base hits. The Nationals' offense has been steaming, but the catcher spot needs to start picking up the slack.