Nola, Phillies fall to Nationals for 5th straight loss

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - There's no secret to the Phillies' worst stretch of baseball this season -- they struggle to get enough hits.

Philadelphia managed just four hits in a 5-1 loss to Daniel Murphy and the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.

The Phillies lost their season-high fifth straight game and have scored just nine runs during the skid.

At 26-26, the Phillies are at .500 for the first time since a 10-10 start. They began the night with a .234 batting average that ranked 24th among the 30 big league teams and had scored 163 runs, more than only Atlanta.

"We're just getting out-homered every night," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "Four hits, we're not hitting home runs. Once again, I feel like it's a broken record. We're not hitting. We had a good month and a half.

"When things are going good, they snowball. When they're going bad, they snowball. And you've got to keep that snowball from rolling. Somehow we've got to figure out a way to get out of it."

The Phillies wasted a good effort from Aaron Nola (4-4), who gave up two runs and five hits in six innings and is 0-2 in six starts against the Nationals.

"That was the bright spot of the night, Nola once again pitched very well," Mackanin said.

Nola thinks the Phillies will rebound.

"I feel like that's who we are," he said. "We're a team that's going to go out and battle and give it everything we have."

Murphy hit one of four Washington home runs, Joe Ross allowed three hits in seven innings and the Nationals won their third straight.

NL MVP Bryce Harper missed the game, a day after he bruised his right knee when hit by a pitch.

Murphy broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth with a two-out solo homer off Nola and added an infield single in the eighth. He hit .416 in May (47 for 113) with seven homers and 23 RBIs, tying the franchise record for hits in a month, shared by Al Oliver (August 1982) and Marquis Grissom (June 1994) of the Montreal Expos. He finished the month with a 10-game hitting streak.

Nationals manager Dusty Baker doesn't think flipping the calendar to June will bother Murphy.

"I don't think he really cares. Murph's ready to hit June, July, August, September," Baker said of Murphy, who homered in six straight postseason games last fall to help the Mets win the NL pennant. "You've seen him in October. It doesn't really matter as long as we keep him healthy and happy."

Murphy deflected questions about his personal accomplishment, instead focusing on the team's success. The Nationals finished May with 16 wins.

"That was more fun," he said of the victories.

Asked if he'll be sad to see May end, Murphy said, "We can still win baseball games in June. I think that's allowed."

Jayson Werth, Danny Espinosa and Stephen Drew also homered for Washington.

Ross (5-4) struck out five and walked two.

Felipe Rivero and Jonathan Papelbon finished the four-hitter.

Espinosa hit a two-run homer in the ninth against Colton Murray, and Drew followed with an inside-the-park homer that caromed off the wall in right-center and sharply away from outfielders.

Werth hit a solo homer in the first, but Cesar Hernandez's RBI triple tied the score in the third.

DREW'S TRIP

Drew watched his hit deflect off the wall and knew he could make third, but he had to pick up speed when he saw third base coach Bob Henley waving him home.

"It kind of happened fast," Drew said. "I saw the ball kick back so I knew I could get to third, but halfway to third I saw him still waving his hand, so I said, `I have to kick it in gear here."'

STANDINGS

Washington improved to 32-21 to move two games ahead of the Mets in the NL East after New York's 6-4 loss to the White Sox on Tuesday. The Phillies dropped 5 1/2 games behind the Nationals.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Nationals: Harper is day to day after he left in the seventh inning of Monday's 4-3 victory over Philadelphia when he was hit by a pitch.

UP NEXT

RHP Max Scherzer (5-4, 4.05) is to start Wednesday's series finale for Washington against LHP Adam Morgan (1-3, 6.67) for Philadelphia.

Scherzer is 5-1 with a 2.38 ERA in eight starts against Philadelphia, including 4-0 with a 1.88 ERA since joining the Nationals in 2015. Morgan is 0-3 with an 8.10 ERA in his past three starts.