Sinking Nats fall out of first place while Fister's inconsistent season continues

For the third straight night, a Nationals starter ran into trouble with the longball. This time it was the Diamondbacks shelling Doug Fister for three homers as the Nationals fell out of first place in the National League East for the first time since June 19 with a 6-4 loss.

"(I'm) continuing to work through some of the trials that I've got," Fister said. "Just not executing every one of them. That's my biggest downfall right now is I've got to be more consistent. I started out OK and ended OK, but I really have to stay with it there in the middle."

Fister coasted through the opening two innings facing the minimum batters before running into trouble. The Diamondbacks began their assault with Nick Ahmed's solo moonshot to center in the third.

A.J. Pollock led off the next frame with a single. Two batters later, David Peralta mashed Fister's changeup over the center field wall for a two-run homer. Welington Castillo followed with a solo shot to left-center. It's the second time the Nats starters have surrendered back-to-back homers in as many nights and third straight game they've allowed at least two longballs.

"Being up in the zone, definitely," Fister said led to the home runs. "I'm going after them. I'm attacking with my best stuff. When it's up in the zone, it's much easier to hit. It doesn't have the deception. It doesn't have the sink on it. It's a lot flatter and straighter. These guys are good hitters. I have to respect that. I have to make a quality pitcher, and if not, they are going to make me pay for it."

The loss drops Fister to a disappointing 4-7 mark sporting a robust 4.60 ERA. The tall right-hander has been tagged for 12 homers in 86 innings this year after giving up 18 in 164 frames last season.

"For him, it's about down angle, the ball moving down," Nationals manager Matt Williams said. "When the ball is up, he doesn't have a chance to do that. It moves laterally, especially to the left-handers who can stay on the baseball and hit it to the middle of the diamond. If it's sinking, then you find what you found in the first couple of innings where it's rolling over, grounders, it's early in the count outs and he's in command. But when he gets up, it's just a lot easier for a hitter to hit."

The scuffling Nats offense finally came alive, scoring four times in the ninth, but the six-run deficit was too much to overcome.

"These guys keep fighting," Fister said. "That's the heart that we have and the guys that we have in here. We have 24 other guys that want to win and want to go out there and do whatever it takes to win at the end of the day, and that's what this game's all about. The fight, scratching and clawing until the end of the game. That's what we're doing."

With the Mets overpowering the Marlins 12-1 tonight, the Nats sit a game out of first place in the division and three games behind Chicago for the final wild card spot.

"That's not good, but it's not the end of the season," Fister said. "We still have quite a bit of time left, and we need to go out here every day and make sure we get our business done."

Williams indicated Stephen Strasburg had a good outing in what was expected to be his final minor league rehab start at Triple-A Syracuse before rejoining the Nationals rotation this weekend. Strasburg tossed 5 2/3 innings, yielding two runs on four hits while striking out 11. It's assumed that rookie Joe Ross will once again be bumped out of the starting five when Strasburg returns. But if Ross shows well in his start on Thursday against the Diamondbacks in the series finale, he could make that decision much tougher, especially with the playoff push under way.