Rendon making strides at second base on tough night for Nats

Second baseman Anthony Rendon is responsible for the only run the Nationals have scored in an 18-inning span of two losses to Milwaukee. His solo homer off of winning pitcher Kyle Lohse cut the Brewers lead to 4-1, which turned out to be the final score. Rendon said he finally got a good look at a curveball after struggling against Lohse in earlier at-bats. "I knew he was throwing it at me the whole previous at-bats," Rendon said. "He got me on the first couple and he happened to hang one and I happened to hit it. He was working both sides of the plate, using all of his pitches. That is what a good pitcher does, he was on tonight." Rendon said it is tough to explain how the Nationals could score 23 runs in two games in a row and then just one in the last two contests. "It would be nice if we could score 13 runs every game, but this is not how baseball is," Rendon said. "Some games we score a lot runs, next game you don't score as many. "We had a lot of good hits out there, especially to the outfield, their outfielders made a lot of good plays, (Logan) Schafer and (Carlos) Gomez, they all made some pretty good plays. But it just didn't fall tonight." Rendon continues, however, to show some defensive skills at second base, and is making a nice pairing with veteran Ian Desmond. "That is what I keep saying, the more times I get out there, the more comfortable I am going to be and try to get better every day," he said. Rendon described how manager Davey Johnson worked with him during batting practice on holding runners at second base during batting practice. "He was working on getting close to the bag," Rendon said. "When to jab at them and when not to jab at them, just to trying to get a read on them." It was one of the few bright spots for the Nationals on a tough night at the Park. But seeing how Rendon had only a handful of games at second base before he arrived in the big leagues for a second time, his offense and defense continue to be a promising development in an otherwise up-and-down campaign.