Williams discusses Nats' 3-1 loss

A.J. Burnett kept his successful streak against the Nationals going, and the Phillies kept on rolling.

Burnett allowed just one run over seven innings in the Phillies' 3-1 win this afternoon, giving him just his third win since June 20.

All three of those wins have come against the Nats.

The Phillies, meanwhile, earned their fifth series win in their last six sets. The last-place Phils have surprisingly gotten hot recently, winning series over the Mariners, Cardinals, Braves and now two sets over the Nats.

Here's manager Matt Williams after the loss:

On Burnett: "We beat him here once, but he's a good match-up against our guys. Middle of our order guys have some damage against him, but not a lot of base hits, and he matches up pretty well with our team over time. Seems to throw strikes against us, his walk totals are certainly lower against us than the other teams he faces. But it's one of those things in baseball were there are good matchups and there aren't, but he matches up well against our guys thus far."

On if Burnett wasn't quite as sharp as he was up in Philly: "Yeah, we had some opportunities, but he made some pitches when he had to. Veteran pitcher, he's been there. Understands what he needs to do out there. But he made good pitches."

On the Phillies' recent success against the Nats: "Well over the last five, it hasn't been good for us. We've got a chance again tomorrow. But it's been a case of them pitching really well against us, Burnett especially. So it doesn't get any easier tomorrow with Cole (Hamels), and we'll have to see what we can do against him."

On Tanner Roark's outing: "He was OK. It all started with the base hit to the pitcher, and then he threw (Ryan) Howard a curveball that he hit into right field. And then the 3-0 homer. But other than that, he was pretty good. He's to a point now where his innings have really gotten up there, and in that situation, we've got lefties lined up in the bullpen against a lefty-heavy lineup, so we decided to take him out of there at that point and let the bullpen take it over, which they did. But not enough today."

On whether he's seen anything different from Roark as his innings have risen: "No, we've just got to be mindful of it. He's at 90 (pitches) there, and we can send him back out, but if he gets in trouble, we're going to the lefty anyway. We've got Det (Ross Detwiler) set and ready to go, and he's hot in the bullpen in case we get in trouble in the previous inning. We didn't get to him in the batting order, but nonetheless, we were set up there with Det to go that inning and Det to go two."

On if he noticed any effect from the long road trip, flight back east and two long extra-inning games recently: "I don't know. Today's a little flat, but yesterday, scored eight runs. It's one of those games. So I don't really put much stock in that. Today was a touch flat, but it was against a guy who matches up well against us, too. So it looks that way. I don't think so. I think everybody's OK, and we'll see how everybody wakes up in the morning. But I think everybody's fine."