End results aside, Roark pitching well to begin season

No pitcher will ever admit it, but it had to be on Tanner Roark's mind Friday night. With the Nationals struggling mightily to score runs these days, the right-hander must have felt like he needed to be near-perfect on the mound against the Rockies.

"No, you've just got to pitch your game, execute pitches," Roark insisted. "They'll get the job done. You've got to do your job on the mound, one pitch at a time, and execute the pitches."

Roark did do that quite well. He surrendered a solo homer to Carlos Gonzalez in the fourth, then allowed an unearned run to score in the sixth. But that was the extent of the Rockies' damage against him. It should've been enough to earn Roark the win. Instead, he was tagged with a hard-luck loss when the Nats went down quietly 2-1.

Taking the positive view, Roark has looked pretty good to begin his season. He excelled in his season debut in Atlanta (one run in seven innings). He made some critical mistakes in his next outing against the Mets (issuing three straight walks and then a grand slam during a five-runs-in-five-innings performance). And now he was charged with only one earned run in six innings against a tough Colorado lineup.

"The previous start was two pitches I would love to have back, but that's the way the game goes," he said. "Tonight felt great. My body felt great. They're a good-hitting lineup. I just kept attacking and not giving in."

Even the Gonzalez homer wasn't a particularly bad pitch by Roark. He tried to fool the veteran slugger with a 2-0 changeup down and away. It was away, but it didn't get down quite enough.

"It was off the plate, but it was up a little bit," the pitcher said. "If I get it down, it would be just like the one he hit a sac fly on (in the sixth). But it was up just a little bit, and he put a good swing on it."

Three starts in, Roark is 1-1 with a 3.50 ERA. He has allowed only 12 hits and sports a 1.00 WHIP over 18 innings, and it's hard to find fault with any of that.

If only his teammates had provided him with a bit more run support in this one.