The Nationals could have made a significant decision ahead of Friday night’s series opener against the Rays. With Thursday’s off-day, they could have chosen to skip Mitchell Parker’s spot in the rotation while keeping the other four starters on normal rest, allowing the struggling left-hander to work on some things with some extra time before his next start.

Instead, they chose to keep him in his spot, with interim manager Miguel Cairo saying before the game Parker needs to pitch.

So he did pitch, and in fact he pitched very well, albeit in a 4-1 loss to Tampa Bay.

“It was nice to see him pitch like competing," Cairo said of Parker. "He was throwing strikes. He was attacking the hitters. … It was nice to see him come back and be who he can be. And it was really good to see that.”

Parker entered tonight with a 12.00 ERA and 1.952 WHIP over his five August starts, with the Nats winless in all of those outings. But he at least kept his team in the game by turning in his first quality start since July 19 against the Padres.

“It's one of the closer games I've kept us in in a while. So being able to keep us in it was a good feeling," Parker said. "Obviously, we could have had a better ending, but again, a step in the right direction.”

The night didn’t start off smoothly for the lefty, however. After two quick outs in the first, Parker gave up a single to Yandy Díaz and served up a two-run home run to University of Maryland product Brandon Lowe. He then gave up a two-out double to Christopher Morel before finally closing out the inning, needing 29 pitches to do so.

But unlike much of the season, this time he bounced back.

Parker put up three straight zeros over the next three innings. The only damage he surrendered the rest of the night was a leadoff home run in the fifth to Everson Pereira, the first of the rookie’s career.

“We've been working on consistency with all the off-speed pitches all year, and finally, we are taking bigger steps in the right direction," Parker said.

Indeed, the southpaw ended his night by retiring 17 of the last 20 batters he faced, the homer and two singles being the only blemishes. He relied heavily on his breaking balls, throwing his curveball 34 percent of the time and getting seven whiffs off it and throwing his slider 19 percent of the time and getting five whiffs. He induced 14 total whiffs on the night and recorded the first out in the seventh before giving way to Clayton Beeter.

“We worked a lot on it in between this start and the last one," Parker said of his breaking balls. "Obviously, the confidence was up with it. So we were going to ride it as long as we were being consistent and we were getting good results with it.”

Parker’s final line over 6 ⅓ innings included six hits, three runs, no walks and seven strikeouts on 91 pitches, 62 strikes. It was his first quality start and first time completing six innings since July 19 against the Padres and the first time he struck out more than four since June 18 against the Rockies. It was his longest outing since completing eight shutout innings of one-hit ball against the Orioles on April 22.

“Still a lot to improve on," he said. "But again, a step in the right direction.”

That should have been a reason for the Nationals to celebrate tonight if it weren’t for their lethargic offense.

Because they are so often trailing early, the Nats are usually good at scoring runs late. But that version of the lineup did not show up tonight.

The Nats were able to score off Rays right-handed starter Adrian Houser in the first, possibly setting up a back-and-forth affair. But they also wasted an opportunity to score in bunches, which was more representative of the night to come.

James Wood led off with a walk and CJ Abrams followed with a single. Both moved into scoring position, but only Wood would score on Luis García Jr.’s sacrifice fly. Abrams being stranded on base would be a theme for the Nationals.

Despite numerous opportunities while outhitting the Rays, the Nats weren’t able to score any more runs, going 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position and leaving 13 runners on base. They stranded a runner in all but one inning, five times with a runner 90 feet away from scoring.

“We left a lot of guys, less than two outs, on third base," Cairo said. "Those are the little things that we talk about. Doing the little things to win ballgames. Move the runner over, put the ball in play with a man on third and less than two outs. That's the little things that we got to do consistently. We don't want to hit 10 homers in one game or three homers. So that's the kind of baseball that we got to play it. And we got to fix that.”

Their best opportunity came in the fourth, when they loaded the bases for Abrams with two singles and a walk. But with two outs and in a full count, the Nationals shortstop was called out on a seventh-pitch slider from Houser that was well below the zone. That stranded all three runners and led to assistant hitting coach Chris Johnson being ejected from the game by home plate umpire Derek Thomas for arguing from the railing of the dugout.

“I thought it was low. He called it a strike," Abrams said. "I can't do anything else about it, so just keep playing.”

“It was a ball. But nothing you can do about it," Cairo said. "Umpires, they're humans, they're going to make a mistake. And it was a ball.”

Of course, Pereira’s homer immediately followed to start the next frame.

The Nats also had a great opportunity against left-handed reliever Garrett Cleavinger in the seventh with runners on the corners and no outs. But Josh Bell struck out, pinch-hitter Andrés Chaparro struck out on three pitches, all of which were out of the strike zone, and Riley Adams struck out looking at a fastball right down the middle.

“If you chase, you're going to get in trouble," Cairo said. "You gotta make sure you bring the pitcher in the strike zone. And that's what we need to do. When you make the pitcher come in the strike zone, you're going to have a chance to do some damage.”

It was also a waste of good outings from some of the Nats’ top young players. At the top of the lineup, Wood reached base three times via walks and Abrams went 3-for-5 with a double. And near the bottom Dylan Crews finished 3-for-4.

“It was good," the interim skipper said. "It was nice to see Dylan get good at-bats and get some base hits. And CJ, he's been swinging the bat good. And Woody, it was nice to see him get good at-bats and get some (walks). We just need to get the rest of the guys to get good at-bats, too.”

There aren’t too many other positives to take away from a sixth straight loss. But Parker’s performance to hopefully set up a strong finish to the season certainly is one. And the Ashanti and Ja Rule postgame concert for the announced crowd of 27,358 at Nationals Park isn’t too bad either.

“He gave us a chance to win today," Cairo said of Parker. "We just didn't capitalize (with) men on base. But it goes like that sometimes. We just got to come back tomorrow and get good at-bats and battle.”