MILWAUKEE – The Nationals have three opportunities this weekend to end this disappointing first half on a high note. They entered this three-game set against the red-hot Brewers having lost five of their last six games.

Even so, they began the day only 2 ½ games behind the Braves in the National League East, leaving a small chance they could enter the All-Star break not in last place for the first time since June 23.

Alas, this surging Brew Crew squad was too much for the Nationals to handle, getting them off to a rough start to the weekend with a 8-3 setback in front of an announced crowd of 35,057 at American Family Field.

For the Nats to have any chance of a more successful second half, the pitchers in the starting rotation not named MacKenzie Gore need to find more success on the bump. Once a promising young core on the roster, Nats starters entered the day with a collective 4.72 ERA, fifth-worst in the major leagues.

Mitchell Parker is definitely in that group looking to turn things around. After a strong rookie campaign in 2024, the left-hander has struggled to recapture that success in his sophomore season.

Parker entered his 19th start looking to improve upon his 5-9 record, 4.72 ERA and 1.377 WHIP, all well above the marks he posted last year. And he appeared to be well on his way to doing so before a crushing third inning.

The 25-year-old retired six Brewers in a row after giving up a leadoff single in the first. He needed only 23 pitches to get through the first two innings unscathed. But the Brewers got to him in a big way in the third frame.

Staked with a 1-0 lead, Parker gave up six straight hits without recording an out to start the third, resulting in the Nats suddenly facing a 6-1 deficit.

“Gotta be better," Parker said after his 10th loss. "That's it. Gotta be better.”

The first two hits were the results of some bad luck. Daylen Lile couldn’t catch a fly ball at the warning track in right field on the first and Joey Ortiz’s bloop single landed in no-man’s land in shallow center field for the second.

But the next four were all well struck RBI hits. Sal Frelick slapped one the other way to drive in Milwaukee’s first run. William Contreras hit an RBI double into the right field corner. Jackson Chourio drove in two with a hard-hit ball to center field. And Christian Yelich capped off the rally with a two-run home run to right, his 19th of the season.

"Just gotta execute better," Parker said. "Can't make (bad) pitches. It's a good team. I gotta pitch better.”

“In the first two innings, he was throwing the ball really well," said catcher Riley Adams. "A lot of conviction both with the fastball and breaking balls. And we got to that third inning, I thought he was throwing some good pitches. They were just getting some weak contact hits and kind of strung them together. And next thing we know, they had six on there. I know he threw the ball a lot better than what the box score shows. I feel for him.”

With the Brewers squaring Parker up, interim manager Miguel Cairo still needed his starter to give the Nats as much length as possible. The southpaw issued a two-out walk and RBI double to Contreras in the fourth. And with two runners on (both via walks) with two outs in the fifth, it was finally time to call on the bullpen.

“The first two innings were good," Cairo said. "And the second they were putting the barrel on the ball, it was just one bad inning. That's it. That's all. And after that, he battled back. He gave us a couple more innings. But we gotta keep battling.”

Parker ends the first half of the season 5-10 with a 5.12 ERA and 1.422 WHIP. That normally would leave questions about his future in the big league rotation, but with Cade Cavalli posting a 6.25 ERA in 11 starts with Triple-A Rochester, there are no clear replacements in the Nats farm system.

“Learning a lot," Parker said of his first half. "There's obviously some big things that we need to work on. So the time between now and the next start I'm gonna kind of look through some things and hopefully improve on them for the second half.”

Offensively, the Nats struggled against lefty opener DL Hall and right-hander Quinn Priester. CJ Abrams and James Wood both reached against Hall in the first, but didn’t come around to score. Abrams then drove in the Nats’ first run with an RBI triple in the top of the third. Brady House then added his ninth major league RBI with a double in the sixth.

The biggest bright spot, however, was Adams, the No. 9 hitter who walked, doubled and homered in his first three plate appearances. His fourth longball traveled 397 feet to left field in the top of the seventh.

“It felt good trying to help the team in that way," Adams said. "But ultimately, we came up short tonight.”

“It was nice to see Riley Adams come back big and hit a homer, get a walk, a double," Cairo said. "It was good to see that.”

But Andrew Vaughn got that run right back in the bottom of the inning with a solo shot of Luis García.

Hall and Priester combined to limit the Nats to three runs on six hits and four walks with six strikeouts over the game’s nine innings.

It surely wasn’t the start the Nats were looking for in their final series before the break. But they have two more chances to build momentum before gearing up for the second half.

"We just gotta keep battling," said Cairo.