Gonzalez up to his old tricks escaping jams (Nats lose 2-1)

SAN DIEGO - At this point, there's no sense agonizing when Gio Gonzalez gets himself into early jams and racks up a high pitch count. It may frustrate everyone wearing a Nationals uniform, or rooting for them, but Gonzalez has shown time and again he'll find a way to get out of the trouble with minimal, if any, damage.

Gonzalez is up to his old tricks again tonight against the Padres. Despite allowing five batters to reach base in his first two innings, the left-hander posted zeros on the scoreboard in each frame. It wasn't until a pair of fourth-inning doubles that the Padres finally came through with a run across the plate.

Gonzalez threw seven straight balls to begin his evening and threw only nine of his 25 pitches for strikes in the bottom of the first. He, of course, escaped with zero runs scored. One inning later, he loaded the bases with one out via a single, an error of his own making and a walk of the opposing pitcher - only to emerge with another zero.

A pitch count of 59 through only two innings, though, left Gonzalez behind the eight-ball. And even though he has completed five frames allowing only one run on four hits, he's at 97 pitches and in danger of getting pulled soon.

Most of the Nationals hitters have had a difficult time picking up Padres starter Joey Lucchesi tonight, the funky left-hander fooling them with his herky-jerky delivery and excellent pickoff move. But they've had a couple of hits via solid contact, two of those by Anthony Rendon.

Rendon, who singled to center in the top of the first, delivered the biggest hit of the night in the fourth when he launched a home run into the left-center field bullpen, giving the Nats the 1-0 lead.

The Padres immediately tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth via the aforementioned doubles by A.J. Ellis and Manuel Margot.

Update: The seventh inning may prove to be the critical frame of the night. The Nats had a man on third with one out but couldn't bring him home against old pal Craig Stammen. The Padres got a man on third with nobody out and did get him home, with Matt Szczur's double to deep left field off Trevor Gott scoring Manuel Margot. And so the Nationals now trail 2-1 and are down to their final six outs.

Update II: That'll do it. Though the rest of the Nats bullpen was able to keep the deficit at one, the lineup couldn't deliver the late rally against the Padres bullpen. Final score: San Diego 2, Washington 1. After taking 2-of-3 in this series, the Nats now head to Arizona for a big four-game weekend set with the red-hot Diamondbacks.