Harper homers to the opposite field again (Nats lose 3-2)

LOS ANGELES - It took Bryce Harper 2 1/2 months to hit his first opposite-field homer of the season. It took him only five days to hit his second.

Harper took Scott Kazmir deep to left field in the top of the first inning tonight at Dodger Stadium, giving the Nationals an early 1-0 lead with yet another encouraging sign the once-slumping MVP is getting his stroke back.

Harper went the other way on Kazmir's 2-1 pitch, sending it beyond left fielder Howie Kendrick's leap and beyond the fence. It was his 15th home run of the season, only his second hit to the opposite field.

When Harper did the same thing Thursday night in San Diego, it looked like a sign he was getting his peak hitting stroke back after a lengthy slump in May and early June. He faltered a bit over the weekend, though, culminating with his three-strikeout showing Monday night against Clayton Kershaw.

Counting tonight's homer, though, he's now hitting .316 with a .400 on-base percentage and .856 OPS through his last 16 games, since his batting average reached its season low at .238.

Harper's homer stands as the lone run of this game so far, thanks to three scoreless frames by Tanner Roark, who has been both effective and efficient early on.

Roark has allowed just one Dodgers batter to reach base: Joc Pederson, who doubled in the bottom of the second. He has otherwise retired the nine other men he has faced, needing only 37 pitches to navigate his way through the first three innings.

The Nationals could certainly use an efficient, and long, start from Roark one night after long reliever Yusmeiro Petit was forced to throw six innings in an emergency start after Stephen Strasburg was scratched with an upper back strain.

Update: The good news: The Nats lead 2-0 after five innings, and Roark is absolutely cruising, having tossed five scoreless on 57 pitches. The bad news: They could easily lead 5-0 right now if they simply were able to record a hit or two with a man in scoring position. They're 0-for-7 in that department already, including 0-for-3 in the fifth inning alone. That inning ended with the Dodgers intentionally walking Daniel Murphy to load the bases for Ryan Zimmerman. If you've been following along this season, you probably know what happened next. Zimmerman struck out, taking two pitches over the plate and then whiffing at one down and away. He's now a staggering 0-for-9 with the bases loaded this season, which is not good at all.

Update II: It's still 2-0 after seven innings, thanks to a brilliant performance by Roark. He has shut out the Dodgers on 81 pitches so far, scattering two singles and two doubles without issuing a walk or multiple hits in the same inning. This is exactly what the Nationals needed tonight, and they'll keep riding Roark until he can't go any further.

Update III: Well, the storyline of this game sure got turned on its head. Up 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth, Tanner Roark put two men on base and then served up a towering, three-run homer to Yasmani Grandal, spoiling his otherwise brilliant start. The Nats couldn't rally in the ninth against Kenley Jansen, and so they wound up with an incredibly disheartening 3-2 loss, their fourth straight. The attention certainly will focus on that fateful bottom of the eighth, but it really should be on the previous seven innings when the Nats went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and had countless opportunities to expand their lead. That, more than anything, accounts for tonight's loss.