Nats fall again, drop 5-1 decision to Diamondbacks

By Dan Kolko

Nationals

May 01, 2012, 5:45pm

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For a few games last week, the Nationals were working on a string of consecutive scoreless innings thrown by their starting pitchers, a total which reached 25 frames. For most of tonight's game, they were watching a different scoreless streak mount. And it wasn't a good one. When Roger Bernadina crossed the plate in the eighth inning tonight, it broke a string of 17 straight innings the Nats had gone without a run. The one run was nice, but Washington could have used a few more of 'em, as the Nats fell to the Diamondbacks 5-1. The disturbing trend of the Nats' offense failing to deliver continued, as Washington was out-hit 13-6 and didn't get in the run column until the eighth inning. Trevor Cahill breezed through the Nats' lineup in his 7 1/3 frames, striking out four Nationals hitters in a row at one point. Jordan Zimmermann didn't pitch poorly, but he still wasn't at his finest, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits over 6 1/3 frames for Washington. The Nationals have now lost five straight games, and have managed to score just seven (count 'em, seven) runs in that five-game span.