Stephen Strasburg

The Washington Nationals ' offense may have reached its lowest depths of ineffectiveness in one telling moment of Wednesday's 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals . The lineup, which scratched out its first run in 20 innings on a pleasant afternoon at Nationals Park, had a prime opportunity late in the game to prevent a sweep at the hands of the team that ended its season last October. Instead, the Nationals lost their ninth of 12 games and left Manager Davey Johnson looking to make more changes to the lineup.

When good baseball teams get away from their core identities and inexplicably play as if they have been inhabited by alien beings, one clue often solves the mystery: They are focused on instant results rather than the process of playing properly. They constantly try to win the game rather than to simply make the next play or pitch that leads, eventually, to good results. Everybody in baseball knows this. Yet in any season, every team loses itself at least once, often for weeks at a time, and has to find its way back.

NEW YORK — Not long after the second New York Met trotted around bases in the sixth inning Friday night, a rallying cry circulated throughout Citi Field. During his career, Washington Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg had been praised, anointed and cherished. He had not been openly mocked, not until Matt Harvey gave fans of a beleaguered franchise cause to puff their collective chest. They chanted: "Har-vey's bet-ter! Har-vey's bet-ter!" Both 24, rocket-armed and at the front of their respective National League East rotations, Harvey and Strasburg met for the first of what will likely be many duels Friday night.

The Nationals were 8-3 after 11 games last season. This year, after Saturday's 11th game, a 3-1 loss to Atlanta , they are 7-4 . So why does it feel like these Nats are playing nowhere near their 2012 level? Because their defense and bullpen are struggling? Because No. 1 starter Stephen Strasburg is now 1-2? Because they've lost two games in less than 24 hours to their division rivals? Essentially, yes. "That's why you play 162 games," said second baseman Danny Espinosa, who has struggled mightily at the plate but whose first homer of the season was also the Nats' only run on Saturday.

Two easy conclusions may have been drawn after the Washington Nationals ' 3-1 loss Saturday afternoon to the Atlanta Braves. The men inside the Nationals' clubhouse rejected both. Ryan Zimmerman had made another game-altering misfire, but the third baseman expressed only confidence in his surgically repaired right shoulder. The Braves captured their second win over Washington — and 10th in 11 games — but the Nationals dismissed any notion about a power shift in the National League East.

CINCINNATI — Stephen Strasburg ambled from the on-deck circle to home plate in the fifth inning Sunday afternoon, a walk the Washington Nationals had rarely allowed him. Strasburg had thrown 92 pitches — 12 more than Manager Davey Johnson permitted six days earlier — and the go-ahead run stood on second base in a tie game. But Johnson has long spoken about looking to Strasburg, 24, as the leader of his staff. Now came time to act on that vow. "I figured he could give me another inning, or maybe even two," Johnson said.

Surpassing his first season in Washington may have felt like a burden for Gio Gonzalez , if only the notion of burdens fit into Gonzalez's worldview. He is not the kind of person who dwells or worries . Let expectations soar. Let Major League Baseball investigate him. He will overwhelm an opposing lineup, drill a curveball through the chilling wind and smile as he floats around the bases. Wednesday night, in the first start of his encore season, Gonzalez keyed the Washington Nationals ' 3-0 victory over the overmatched Miami Marlins with six shutout innings and the second home run of his career.

In their first game of the season, the Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins at home Monday, 2-0. Stephen Strasburg pitched seven scoreless innings for the Nationals, and Bryce Harper hit two home runs: Strasburg threw seven clinical innings in which the Miami Marlins looked all but helpless, and Harper hit a missile-like home run in each of his first two at-bats, the only runs necessary in what became a 2-0 victory on opening day. (Read...

The Washington Nationals are off to a magical start this season, with a sold-out house Monday witnessing a pair of home runs by star outfielder Bryce Harper and a seven-inning shutout by pitching ace Stephen Strasburg. There were even commercial victories, including expanded sponsorship deals with athletic-wear company Under Armour and MedStar Health, both with prominent new outfield signs — right behind Harper. But the team's owners, the family of Ted Lerner, have yet to make their big commercial home run: a long-term stadium naming-rights deal, expected by some to soar as high as $15 million a year over several decades.

Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg announced themselves as a full-season, full-force tandem for the first time on opening day Monday. They turned Nationals Park, packed far past capacity, into an arena of pure possibility , a place where fantasy goes when it dreams of becoming reality. If this day was any hint, the rest of baseball can brace for hardship, Washington for the sight of two of the biggest baseball talents in many years as they improve rapidly, learn the subtleties of their game and, it now seems, thrive on the fuel of trying to surpass each other's dazzling deeds.