Roark solid again, but is he worried about wearing out arm?

Nationals starting pitcher Tanner Roark kept his team in the game and almost got through seven innings in a 3-1 loss Saturday to the Phillies.

Roark went 6 1/3 innings scattering six hits and allowing three runs while striking out nine and walking three. His nine strikeouts matched his season-high against the New York Mets on April 8.

The Phillies started quickly. César Hernández singled and Rhys Hoskins homered for a 2-0 lead.

"First inning. I'm not gonna go walk a guy," Roark said of Hoskins' blast. "Just attack him. He hit it out. If I had a hat on, I'd tip it. But I don't, so..."

In the sixth they added a run on a Carlos Santana triple and a Maikel Franco single that made it 3-1.

In the seventh, Pedro Florimón struck out. But Roark walked Andrew Knapp. Before the lineup flipped to the top of the order, manager Davey Martinez went to the bullpen.

"Trying to give the bullpen a little breather, and he looked strong," Martinez said. "He really did. The first two hitters of the game was his nemesis today. After that he was really good. We had a conversation. He said he felt good. After that, we let him go."

Roark had reached 115 pitches.

"I felt good. Still felt good when I came out of the game," Roark detailed. "Just the bullpen needed a little day today after yesterday, so tried my best to do my best and go out there and give it all I've got."

With it being only the first week of May, did Roark believe that many pitches would hurt him for later in the season?

"I go until they take me out of the game," he said. "I just dug deep, and like I said, gave the best I got for the 115 pitches that I threw."

It was a solid, if not spectacular, quality start for Roark. A start in which he kept the Phillies off the board for five innings in a row. The story of this game was the Nats offense, which mustered only two hits.

* It appeared that Bryce Harper and home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski got into it a bit during a Harper at-bat. Martinez came out to speak with the umpire.

"He thought he called a bad pitch," Martinez said. "I wasn't going to let Mike come out like that. There were some words said. I just tried to protect Bryce."

Harper went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts after hitting two homers Friday night.