PHILADELPHIA — Three hours before the Washington Nationals yet again failed to muster a hit with runners in scoring position Tuesday, every television in the visitors clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park was on MLB Network. They were talking about the guys in the room.It was uncomfortable.That the Nationals operated largely as sellers at the deadline was nothing new. That they were good enough to make that decision a talking point on TV most certainly was. And that no one put it on mute, or changed the channel or even put on headphones was …Well, again, it was uncomfortable.Who won and lost the MLB trade deadline?Andy McCullough and Johnny SweetThen they lost 5-0 to the Philadelphia Phillies, their season-high seventh loss in a row. In a season full of new experiences, this most certainly is one.Those in the visitors clubhouse have just about acknowledged there is a cause and effect between the pressure and letdown of the deadline — in part because transparency has helped them get this far, and in part because acknowledging anything else right now would be too far from the truth to fake it.The Nationals, with a rebuild that has seemingly been expedited, have several characteristics that make them a strong candidate to compete for a postseason spot sooner than many expected. They employ two stars (James Wood and CJ Abrams), have seemingly solved hitting development and have set a culture that kept them competitive into the All-Star break. Now they need to play meaningful games in the second half, or at least treat them as meaningful games, because the unfamiliarity of their current situation seems to be getting to them.Put another way: If this rebuild is a staircase in a skyscraper, the Nationals need to get to the floor where they play meaningful games in August and September (or at least treat them as such) before they can summit the steps that get them into October.“They’re very well aware of what’s going on and how we’re playing,” manager Blake Butera said. “I think at the end of the day, they all want to step up and be the guy to help us get through this. And when you have a young team like this, sometimes it takes a little bit of extra motivation or conversations with players from the staff.”That means getting through the hardships. Their MVP candidate, Wood, went on the injured list Tuesday with a mild oblique strain. Their best pitcher (Foster Griffin) and two of their four best hitters (Luis García Jr. and Curtis Mead) were traded before Monday’s deadline. Their record, just shy of the final wild-card spot for months, tumbled against two NL East rivals on the road.Weeks earlier, Butera said he does not want to get to the point where the games do not matter. The Nationals are not yet at that point. Before Tuesday’s game, starter Cade Cavalli said a pillar of their culture needs to be an ability to weather situations that are out of their control.“It’s just something that you don’t know how to deal with until you go through it,” Cavalli said. “And then once you’re in it, you just have to make the mental decision and be at peace with it.”“I know that it’s been a little bit weird, a lot of noise going on, but stuff happens,” Abrams said. “You’ve got to push through it.”Weird?“Just the vibe,” Abrams said. “You can feel different stuff that’s going on.”The Nationals are showing that on the field. On the final pitch of the game, Abrams removed his helmet and walked from second base to the dugout while the crowd awaited the result of José Tena’s Automated Ball-Strike challenge. The pitch was a called third strike down the middle. It left them 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position on the night, 3-for-46 with runners in scoring position on this trip and 24-for-150 in those situations since July 18.“This is one of those learning things that guys are going to have to go through,” starter Zack Littell said. “Like, it’s not going to go our way all year. It’s just not. And honestly, we’ve — I don’t want to say we’ve been due for a streak like this. But we kind of, for the most part, have gotten away with nipping any of these little streaks in the bud.“But as we play longer and longer, guys are getting worn down. Really good teams are going to continue to get stronger and stronger, especially after adding guys, and we’re just gonna have to keep playing the game that you know we played up to this point.“I know it feels like the sky’s falling a little bit right now. … But this team still has to go out there and play competitive baseball.”Or, at least, it needs to experience what it feels like to do so down the stretch.