The Nationals' offense continued to struggle on Tuesday night, as they lost to the D-backs, 5-1, at Nationals Park in front of 22,675.
The Nationals collected six hits against Trevor Cahill and scored their only run in the eighth inning, when Roger Bernadina scored on a single by Ian Desmond. Before that Washington was on a 17-inning scoreless streak. The Nats had a few chances to score early. Their biggest chance came in the sixth inning, when they had runners on first and second with no outs, but Rick Ankiel hit into a double play and Adam LaRoche grounded out to Aaron Hill to end the inning.
Bryce Harper failed to record a hit in his DC Debut, going 0-3. Harper nearly threw out John McDonald at the plate from left field in the seventh inning, but home-plate umpire Jeff Nelson called McDonald. The replay showed that McDonald was tagged on the leg before he touched home plate.
Jordan Zimmerman continued to get a lack of run support from the Nats. Zimmermann allowed four runs, three earned, in 6 1/3 innings.
With the loss, the Nats have lost 5 in a row and are 14-9. On the positive side, the Nationals still remain in 1st place in the NL East, only 1/2 game ahead of Atlanta. The Nats REALLY need their offense to come through
