Nats drop opener of key series in Philly 4-3 (updated)

PHILADELPHIA - Davey Martinez wasn't afraid to admit it.

"We've got some pretty big games coming up, some teams that are doing really well," the Nationals manager said this afternoon. "What I'd really like for them to see is to kind of play with a sense of urgency. This is a time right now where we can make up some ground and do some good things for ourselves."

It's the final weekend of June, and there's still half a season of baseball to be played. But the Nats, surprise residents of third place in the National League East, came to Citizens Bank Park knowing this was going to be a big series. And their manager wanted his players to act like it.

It's not fair to say the Nationals didn't play like tonight's game mattered. But it is fair to say this team isn't playing anything close to the kind of baseball necessary to win games that matter right now.

With scant offense to speak of again until a last-ditch rally in the ninth inning, a laborious start from Tanner Roark again and a killer late home run surrendered by Ryan Madson again, the Nats dropped the opener of this four-game series, 4-3, and slipped to a full four games out of first place, two games out of second place.

"You guys (asked) at the beginning of the year: 'At what point is it not early in the year?' shortstop Trea Turner said. "I feel like it's now for the most part. We're not in first place. We've got some catching up to do."

That they do. And the only way they're going to do it is by doing something about a lineup that has produced 81 runs this month, fewest in the NL.

After suffering back-to-back shutouts at the hands of the Rays earlier this week, the Nationals did score a run tonight. But they scored only one until a last-ditch attempt to rally in the ninth, which still came up short.

A leadoff single by Turner and an RBI double by Michael A. Taylor breathed some life into this lifeless offense and brought the tying run to the plate with nobody out. And when Taylor scored on a wild pitch, the deficit was down to one. But Phillies closer Seranthony Domínguez bailed his team out and retired Mark Reynolds and Wilmer Difo to hand the Nats their 10th loss in 13 games. They're 41-38 overall and on Saturday will reach the official halfway point of a season that has become far more of a chore than anyone ever expected.

"We've done this many times, where in the late, late innings the bats wake up," Martinez said. "We've got to start working better at-bats early in games."

Roark took the mound sporting a new look on his face. His beard was gone, but a thick mustache and sharply pointed sideburns remained. ("I was going to line up my beard, but then I just decided to do this." he explained.)

Different facial look aside, Roark looked the same on the mound early on. Laboring through his first few innings, he constantly found himself trying to pitch out of jams, grinding for every out and racking up pitches at a hefty rate once again.

The Phillies scored a pair of early runs, one of them unearned as a result of Taylor's bobble of a single to center field, the other made possible by a hit batter, a single and two flyouts to center. Roark never looked fully comfortable out there, but unlike his previous two starts, he did manage to limit the damage and give his team a chance to win, thanks in part to some altered mechanics after watching old video of himself.

By the time he departed at the end of the sixth inning, Roark didn't have one clean inning on his pitching line. He put multiple runners on base in four of those frames. He threw 106 total pitches. But he gave up only two runs, one earned.

"I tell you guys every time, you have to be positive all the time, no matter what you do," Roark said. "It's still a work in progress for feeling it completely, the windup and stuff and hands lower. But I felt a lot better. Just velocity, I felt like was a tick more. Just being consistent with that."

Roark gave his team a chance to win, but these days that's a challenge enough for the Nationals lineup. On the heels of back-to-back shutouts at Tampa Bay, the Nats came to Citizens Bank Park hoping for better results in this hitter-friendly stadium. Instead, they found themselves in an all-too-familiar spot, scratching and clawing for any morsel of offense they could muster up.

The Nationals did score the evening's first run, getting a leadoff single from Turner in the top of the second, then a run-scoring double by Pedro Severino. It was only the second RBI for the young catcher since May 15.

But then the lineup went through another prolonged funk. Aaron Nola proceeded to retire 11 batters in a row following the Severino double, the Nats failing to reach base until Bryce Harper's leadoff single in the sixth. That was followed up by an Anthony Rendon single, giving the team some life at last. Alas, three straight outs from the middle of the lineup quashed that potential rally and left this team still staring at a one-run deficit.

"We know the adjustment that needs to be made in those at-bats," Turner said. "But thinking about it, saying these are the situations right here, doesn't help it at all. I think maybe having a little more fun would help for sure. Right now, we're kind of pressing for somebody to step up and do something, and then kind of looking and when it doesn't happen it's like: 'Man, that was our chance.' But if we can have fun through the course of a game and keep that energy up, then I think those things start happening on their own."

The one-run deficit the Nationals faced more of the night became a three-run deficit after Madson entered to pitch the bottom of the seventh, served up a leadoff single to César Hernández and then a home run to Rhys Hoskins. It was the third homer surrendered by Madson in his last 3 2/3 innings - this after a stretch of 60 1/3 innings without any homers, dating back more than a calendar year - and it left the veteran reliever's ERA at an unsightly 4.73.

The Nationals as a whole? They're floundering right now. They know this is a critical weekend for them. Now they have to actually apply that on the field and emerge victorious a couple of times.

"I've talked to them individually, all of them. They get it and understand," Martinez said. "We're going to snap out of this, we really are. It's just a matter of time. I want them to keep pushing, I want them to keep going and play with energy."