Nats lose marathon in 13, drop another series to Phillies (updated)

PHILADELPHIA - The temperature was approaching triple digits, the heat index had long since surpassed it, and what remained of a crowd of 22,051 at Citizens Bank Park was saving its last ounce of energy for the moment when either the Nationals or Phillies would break their longstanding deadlock and score the run that would win this game.

That moment finally came in the bottom of the 13th, with both teams having exhausted their pitching staffs and something needing to give. It gave when Andrew Knapp, pinch-hitting for the last available pitcher the Phillies had, launched a walk-off homer against Justin Miller to send the Nationals to a disheartening 4-3 loss.

Miller, the last man standing in the Nats bullpen, was pitching for the third straight day. The home run came on his 35th pitch of the afternoon, his 67th in the last 72 hours.

"I was fine," the right-hander insisted afterward. "Towards the end, I was getting a little gassed. But, I mean, I threw a fastball; that's my best pitch. He put his best swing on it, and he won the battle."

Miller was the last of eight Nationals relievers to appear in this game. No starters ever made their way to the bullpen to warm up. So, what exactly would have happened had Miller escaped the 13th and forced a 14th inning?

"He gets out of that inning right there, there's no telling," manager Davey Martinez said. "We'd have to talk to him. But that was a lot. He's been doing an unbelievable job and giving us multiple innings like that. But it's tough. You might have seen Mark Reynolds throwing knuckleballs at that point."

Reynolds, who played the entire game at first base and has never pitched in a big league game, probably would have been opposed by a fellow position player. When Phillies manager Gabe Kapler sent Knapp to the plate to bat for Nick Pivetta (pitching two days after he gave up seven runs in a 1 2/3-inning start), he also had run out of arms. Next up on the mound, Kapler told reporters, would have been third baseman Jesmuel Valentin.

Knapp made it all moot with his 384-foot blast down the right field line. And thus the Nationals dropped another series to the Phillies and have now lost five of seven games to their division rivals in the last week-plus. With the Braves sweeping the Cardinals in St. Louis, the Nationals now sit six games back in the National League East.

"All I can say is our bullpen was heroic," Martinez said. "They stepped up. They got big outs. And they battled. I can't ask for more than what those guys have been doing down there. So I'm proud of them. We've just got to figure out our offense. It's tough winning games with two, three runs."

The Nats sure have been trying, though. In each of their last nine losses, they've scored three or fewer runs.

They squandered countless opportunities to score a precious fourth run today, going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and getting shut out over eight innings against the Philadelphia bullpen.

"We've got to start striking out less," Martinez said, "putting the balls in play, driving in runs when we have the ability to drive in runs."

Both teams had chances to drive in runs, and both teams failed to deliver until the 13th. The Nationals had two on and two out in the seventh, only to watch as Adam Eaton struck out. Then they had two on and two out in the eighth, only to watch as Daniel Murphy grounded out.

Not to be outdone, the Phillies had a man in scoring position with two out in the seventh, only to watch as Ryan Madson struck out Rhys Hoskins on a 98 mph fastball. And then came the bottom of the ninth, with added drama.

Tim Collins, selected to start the inning over closer Sean Doolittle, walked Jesmuel Valentin on five pitches and then surrendered a soft grounder through the right side of the infield to Jorge Alfaro to give the Phillies three shots with the winning run in scoring position. Collins made a nice play on Nick Williams' sacrifice bunt attempt, at which point Martinez elected to bring in Doolittle to face Carlos Santana and watched as one of the best relievers in the league induced an inning-ending double play on one pitch to send this game into extra innings.

The Nationals had the go-ahead runner on second with two outs in the 10th, but after pitching around Anthony Rendon to get to Bryce Harper, reliever Jake Thompson got Harper to ground out and quash that rally as the 5 p.m. hour passed.

"Offensively, we've got to do more," Eaton said. "That's plain and simple. We score early, and then we can't coast. We can't take our foot off the accelerator. We've got to keep going."

With the gametime temperature announced as 97 degrees, both starting pitchers cruised early on, perhaps not wanting to waste any precious energy. Gio Gonzalez retired the first eight batters he faced and completed four scoreless innings on a scant 49 pitches. Jake Arrieta did put the leadoff man on base twice early, but avoided any more damage and held the Nationals scoreless through the third.

But then the Nationals started manufacturing runs off Arrieta to take a 3-0 lead. Trea Turner's leadoff bunt single in the fourth set in motion a chain of events that led to the day's first run. One inning later, Eaton delivered a two-run single to right, the kind of clutch two-out hit this team sorely lacked throughout a frustrating June.

With a three-run lead in hand, Gonzalez took the mound for the bottom of the fifth, looking to keep the positive momentum going. Instead, he slowed the game down to a crawl, couldn't find the strike zone and then turned that lead into a deadlock.

Gonzalez issued three walks in the inning, including one to César Hernández with the bases loaded. He also surrendered two singles and watched as Eaton's sliding catch of a sinking liner in right brought home one of the Phillies' three runs. By the time the inning ended, the left-hander had thrown 40 pitches, the game now tied 3-3 and left in the hands of the bullpens.

Asked to assess his start, Gonzalez said only: "We lost."

At this point, that's probably all that matters to the Nationals.