Nationals can't rally, drop third straight series (updated)

PHOENIX - On a day like this, with loud contact from both sides every few minutes and a pair of pitching staffs that have had trouble limiting damage this weekend, neither the Nationals nor the Diamondbacks should ever have felt comfortable, not until the final out of this series finale was secured.

The two clubs, only hours after Saturday night's slugfest at Chase Field, engaged in another one that ultimately came down to a pair of bullpens that boast plenty of question marks. Which unit would be good enough to get the job done?

In the end, Arizona's 'pen was better than Washington's 'pen. And that's why the Nationals left town having suffered not only a 7-5 loss but also their third straight series defeat.

"We'll get it back together," manager Davey Martinez said. "We will. We're battling back. We're swinging. We're hitting the balls pretty good. We scored five runs today, a bunch last night. We just need to get more consistent. We need to have those shutdown innings again like we did when we were going really good."

A back-and-forth affair saw both lineups enjoy success against both starters: the Nats' Patrick Corbin and the Diamondbacks' Taylor Clarke. The Nationals took advantage of a wild Arizona bullpen to tie the game in the top of the seventh, but then Wander Suero couldn't keep the game tied in the bottom of the inning.

Suero, the only member of the Nats 'pen who hadn't yet pitched in this series, gave the Diamondbacks the lead via a hit batter (on an 0-2 pitch), a single (on an 0-2 pitch), a stolen base that never included a throw to second and then a two-out, two-run single by Adam Jones (on an 0-1 pitch).

"He gets to two strikes," Martinez said, "and he just couldn't finish the hitters off today."

"They've faced me before, so I think they were zoned in on the cutter, and focused to try to go the other way with it," Suero said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "Adam Jones, in his at-bat, I could tell he was just trying to flick it over there. He did very good of hitting it in that direction."

Needing to mount their own rally against Arizona's also-shaky relief corps, the Nationals went down quietly in the eighth and ninth. And so they lost for the sixth time in nine games, failing to take advantage of losses earlier in the day by the Braves and Phillies.

Corbin had been looking forward to his return to Chase Field for a while, and he was able to enjoy the last few days catching up with old teammates and friends. Once he took the mound this afternoon, the left-hander expected to be all business, looking to beat his former team and give his current club a series victory.

But just as Stephen Strasburg found out Saturday night, these Diamondbacks hitters are no piece of cake. They were all over Corbin, getting RBI doubles from Jones and Nick Ahmed in the second and then a line drive to left-center by Ketel Marte in the third that turned into the afternoon's most exciting play.

Gerardo Parra, starting in place of Victor Robles, couldn't make a diving catch of the liner, so the ball rolled all the way to the wall and Marte kept running all the way around the bases. The Nationals appeared to have a shot to throw him out at the plate, but Trea Turner's relay was high and that left Yan Gomes out of position to make the tag. And so it was that Marte was credited with the second inside-the-park homer of his career.

"I think there's a definite play," Turner said. "Especially because he's a speed guy. For me, if it was a first baseman or catcher or whatnot, then I wouldn't expect it. But I knew he'd probably go for it and prepared to give Yan a good throw. Almost had him, but he snuck in there."

Corbin settled down after the inside-the-parker, but he continued to get hit hard. And that led to Martinez's tough decision in the sixth inning.

The Nationals had trimmed the deficit to 4-3, thanks to homers by last night's emergency pitchers (Parra and Brian Dozier). Then they tied it up in the top of the sixth via two singles, a walk and a passed ball. With the bases loaded and two out, Martinez could've sent a pinch-hitter to the plate. Instead he decided to let Corbin bat for himself.

"His pitch count was down (70)," Martinez said. "I liked him. He started settling down a little bit. I've said this before: The reason why we're playing well is because our starters have done well. He had momentum to go out there and get through that sixth inning, and then some. If he gets through the sixth inning quick enough, he goes back out."

At the plate, Corbin grounded out. So now the onus was on him to deliver another zero on the mound. He would retire only one of the four batters he faced. Jones' second RBI double of the afternoon drove in the go-ahead run for Arizona, and ultimately forced Martinez to pull Corbin with only one out.

"I wish it went better today," the starter said. "I just never got in a rhythm out there. They had some good at-bats. Obviously, they've seen me. I've seen them. I thought they just put good at-bats together today and made it tough on me."

Corbin wound up allowing five runs in 5 1/3 innings, hours after Strasburg was torched for nine runs in 4 2/3 innings by a Diamondbacks lineup that looked extremely comfortable at the plate against two of the league's best starters.

"They're really good at small details, throughout everything," Corbin said. "They try to pick up everything on pitchers. They run the bases well. They do the little things, probably as good as any team or any organization can do. You know that. You've got to be on their game."

Daniel Hudson, the designated new fireman of the bullpen, did his job to escape a two-on jam in relief of Corbin. The veteran righty has now stranded all five runners he's inherited since joining the Nationals, and 26-of-27 for the season.

Alas, there were plenty more outs the Nationals needed their relievers to record today. They couldn't record enough of them before first allowing more runners to cross the plate. And in the process, they extended this sudden downturn for a ballclub that had been flying high for weeks.

"Just the ebb and flow of the game," Turner said. "We've been playing good for a long time and put ourselves in a good spot. Now it's time to finish. We need to keep continuing what we did in the last two months and play a little bit better. I don't think we've played bad, by any means. But we've run into some good teams. And they kind of made us pay."