Tanner Roark allows two home runs in 6-4 loss to Marlins

Right-hander Tanner Roark had a rough first inning against the Marlins on Thursday.

His fifth, and last inning, was even worse.

Roark allowed a two-run shot to Martin Prado in the first frame and a three-run homer to Justin Bour in the fifth. That provided the Marlins almost all the offense they needed in a 6-4 win.

"I gave up six runs," Roark said. "As a starter, you're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to limit the damage done, and I didn't do my job today. Honestly, that's the best I've felt. Coming out with throwing everything. All my pitches felt very good. Just a couple of pitches here and there that I didn't execute, and they hit them."

Roark was specific on the pitches to Prado and Bour that cost him the most.

"Most of the time, it's balls that are up at the waist," Roark said. "These are big league hitters, they know how to hit those balls. They go far. You got to get down in the zone. I tip my cap to them.

"I felt like I tried to focus a little too much and try to make perfect pitches instead of just going out there and trusting my stuff and going right after them," he said.

The Nationals tied the game at 2-2 on an Ian Desmond two-run shot. But after the Marlins scored a run in the fifth to go up 3-2, Bour came to the plate with two men on.

"Pretty good at times, other times just a little bit middle and up in the zone," said manager Matt Williams of Roark's night. "Fastball was good, 92-93 mph, throwing it in there good. The one pitch to Bour was the decider. But just up and middle a little bit."

"I was trying to go inside and left it inner third," Roark said of the pitch to Bour. "I didn't get it in there as much as I would like to. He hit it."

Roark said his slider was as good as it has been in awhile, but did that get erased because he took the loss?

"You can't take a negative out of anything cause then you just get in your own head and it just steamrolls into worse things inside your head," Roark said. "You just got to take the positives out of every start. Just keep chugging along."

Roark won 15 games last season as a starter. He began this season in the bullpen. Then he was transitioned two separates times back to the starters role. He said that is not an excuse for why he has had some trouble getting into rhythm pitching from the first inning on this season.

"It's been a crazy year, I'm not going to lie," Roark said. "But you can't put blame on anybody but myself. It's my job whenever my name is called to go out there and get outs. You can't make excuses. I'm not one for making excuses and I never will. Ultimately, it's me out there on the mound and I have control of the game."

"I think he's comfortable in that situation," said Williams. "He's certainly a starter by nature. I think he's comfortable multiple innings in a starting role like that. He threw some good curveballs, he threw some good changeups tonight. The pitch to Prado was a slider that hung, middle of the plate. So really just a couple of pitches got him."

But even still, Roark has not really been given a fair shake as a starter this season. Pitchers, especially starting pitchers, are all about routine. The five-day schedule is planned out perfectly for starters. As a reliever, however, you never know when you will pitch.

"No one's perfect," said Desmond. "Look around the league and you see the best pitchers give up runs. He's been sued in a bunch of different ways this year and that's not easy. I don't think he'll be one to make an excuse about it, so I'm not going to make an excuse for him. He wants to compete and he did that tonight. Obviously, he didn't get the results he wanted, but he gave us a chance."