Nats waste opportunities, watch Dodgers seize theirs

LOS ANGELES - The fateful bottom of the eighth - specifically Yasmani Grandal's towering, game-changing, three-run homer off Tanner Roark - will show up in every highlight reel late tonight and into tomorrow. And certainly it deserves that treatment, because it was the obvious difference in the Dodgers' 3-2 victory over the Nationals.

But the less obvious difference in this game, the overriding factor that left Roark in position to lose the game on one swing, came during the previous 7 1/2 innings. More specifically, the top half of those innings, when the Nationals gave themselves countless opportunities to blow this game open yet refused to actually follow through on it.

With zero hits in their first nine chances with runners in scoring position, the Nationals kept the Dodgers in this game, and left them in a position where one big swing could change the outcome altogether.

And so the frustration in the visitors' clubhouse after this heartbreaker was less over Roark's big mistake in the eighth but his teammates' litany of mistakes at the plate in the preceding 2 1/2 hours.

"We've just got to get better at picking up the runners," manager Dusty Baker said. "I know the guys are trying. It's not because of lack of effort. It's just, keep fighting. It's a tough stretch. We've lost some tough ballgames in the last four days."

Indeed, the Nationals find themselves in a sudden and surprising four-game losing streak. Twice they have blown a lead in the eighth inning. Three times they have managed one or fewer hits with runners in scoring position.

And tonight's performance combined both of those disheartening factors into one difficult loss.

Roark pitched brilliantly for seven innings, shutting the Dodgers out on four hits while keeping his pitch count to a bare minimum (81 to that point). His teammates staked him to a two-run lead, thanks to Bryce Harper's first-inning homer (his second opposite-field shot in five days) and Danny Espinosa's fifth-inning solo shot (his eighth in 19 games).

But the Nationals had countless opportunities to add to that lead all night, only to come up short each time they threatened against Dodgers lefty Scott Kazmir. They went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position in the first five innings alone, failing to take advantage of six extra-base hits.

That included three cracks in the fifth inning, culminating with Ryan Zimmerman's strikeout after the Dodgers intentionally walked Daniel Murphy to load the bases with two outs. Zimmerman is now 0-for-9 with the bases loaded this season, several of those at-bats coming moments after the batter in front of him was intentionally walked.

"Usually he's awesome," Baker said of the 31-year-old first baseman. "The guy's hitting .400 for his career with the bases loaded (actually, .309 entering this season). So his track record said he's one of the best there is around."

Zimmerman wasn't the only Nationals hitter to come up short in a key spot tonight. Every member of the lineup made an out with a runner in scoring position, except for Jayson Werth (who never had an opportunity) and Roark (who actually delivered the team's lone hit in that situation all night).

"I feel like the approach and the result have been there at times," Werth said of the entire lineup. "Not tonight, obviously. But we faced one of the best in the game last night (Clayton Kershaw) ... and even then we had opportunities. We're right there. We just need to win tomorrow."

Despite their repeated inability to tack on, the Nationals still were in position to win this game late, with Roark carrying a shutout into the eighth. Baker didn't think twice about pulling the right-hander at that point.

"Shoot, he only had fewer than 100 pitches at that time," the manager said. "You know Tanner. He wasn't tired."

Roark got himself in trouble immediately, though, when he walked leadoff man Joc Pederson (with a 3-2 pitch on the outside corner that could have gone either way). Yasiel Puig then managed to line a 1-2 slider that was six inches off the plate just beyond Espinosa's leaping reach at shortstop, bringing Grandal to the plate with two on and nobody out.

The Dodgers catcher battled through his at-bat with Roark, fouling off a pair of fastballs and taking another borderline pitch that could have been called a strike but was ruled a ball by plate umpire Doug Eddings. Finally, Roark made a mistake: a 1-2 fastball that hung over the outer third of the plate. And Grandal crushed it to center field, leaving the crowd of 42,307 at Dodger Stadium roaring with delight.

"Just tried to stick to what I was doing," Roark said of the critical at-bat. "Bad execution on the pitch. Nothing you can do, tip your hat."

The Nationals have been forced to do that more than they'd like the last few nights.

"That's tough to see a thing like that," Espinosa said of Roark's dominant start-turned-disaster. "He pitched a heck of a game. So to see that outcome for him, it's pretty tough."