HOUSTON -- Imagine Trea Turner's frustration. After striking out in his first at-bat of World Series Game 5, Turner smoked a 107.7 mph line drive directly at the left fielder in his second plate appearance. In his third, he banged a 102.4 mph grounder toward first base, where Yuli Gurriel was well-positioned to field it. In his fourth, Turner hit another line drive down the right-field line, but not sharply enough to float it over George Springer’s head.

Turner’s hit probabilities, according to Statcast data: 90 percent, 31 percent and 68 percent, respectively. His box score line: 0-for-4.

“I don’t know if you realize how small the window is that every single one of those hits are from either being a homer, a hit, another out, a popup, a strikeout,” Turner said as the Nationals began looking toward a must-win Game 6 at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday, with Washington trailing Houston in the series, three games to two. “We’re talking about hundredths of seconds, if not millimeters on the barrel. Sometimes you hit them at people, sometimes you don’t.”

Such is the nature of small sample sizes in best-of-seven series. Given time, things tend to even out. But the Nationals, who are hitting .233 with a .693 OPS this World Series, no longer have the luxury of time. After breaking out for a dozen runs in Game 2, they scored one per night in Games 3-5 to put themselves on the brink of elimination.

Mostly, the drop-off can be traced to Turner and Anthony Rendon, Washington’s leadoff and third hitters. Consider:

• Turner and Rendon in the World Series: .167/.239/.214

• Turner and Rendon in the regular season: .309/.384/.549

• The other 12 Nationals hitters in the World Series: .262/.340/.452

• The other 12 Nationals hitters in the regular season: .266/.345/.463

“It’s part of baseball,” said outfielder Adam Eaton, who is 6-for-19 during the Fall Classic. “We’ve got to continue to try to have competitive at-bats, good at-bats. As you guys well know, we’re facing a really good staff, so we’ve got to continue to grind and try to make as productive at-bats as possible and stay within ourselves.”

As a lineup, the Nationals haven’t been particularly unlucky in the World Series, producing a .221 expected batting average that’s actually 12 points lower than their .233 actual mark. Dig into the data and it’s clear they’ve seen a few more breaking balls than usual from Astros pitchers (including from Game 5 starter Gerrit Cole, who said he didn’t even realize how frequently he was throwing his slider until he was asked about it after the game). The Nats have chased pitches outside the strike zone a bit more often than they typically do. They’ve swung and missed slightly more. They’re not hitting the ball in the air with quite as much punch.

Mostly, those are symptoms of a more significant problem, which the Nationals cannot readily fix. In five World Series games, 42 percent of their plate appearances have come against Cole and Justin Verlander, who figure to finish 1-2 in American League Cy Young Award voting in some order. Another 14 percent have come against Will Harris, Ryan Pressly and Roberto Osuna, three of the most talented relievers on the planet.

The Astros finished third in the Majors in ERA this season for a reason: They are very, very good, and -- like the Nationals -- have used their best pitchers as frequently as possible in October. So for the Nationals to snap out of this funk against Verlander in Game 6, they don’t necessarily need to change their approach, their swing paths or their expectations. They do need Turner and Rendon to start producing, but more than that, they just need to stay the course and hit.

Eventually, the Nationals’ production is bound to change. The question is whether “eventually” will come soon enough.

“It’s really tough, but you’ve got to see they have really good pitchers on the mound,” said outfielder Juan Soto, who has four extra base-hits in 18 World Series at-bats. “Nobody said it was going to be easy. … We’ve gotten a lot of hard hits. We just can't find the hole. But we’re going to keep swinging.”