The Nationals offense has struggled all season, but the team's offensive futility reached a quantifiably low Tuesday.
Coming into Tuesday's game having been shut out in its last two contests, Washington did not manage a run until the eighth inning of a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, which ended its scoreless streak at 27 innings. That is the longest shutout streak the team has had since moving to D.C. in 2005. That it is occurring now is somewhat perplexing, given the return of mainstays like Ryan Zimmerman and Lastings Milledge to the lineup after the Nationals scored 29 runs from July 18-20 against the Atlanta Braves. But to manager Manny Acta, it's just another affirmation of how far the team still has to go offensively.
Players such as Milledge and Zimmerman, while part of the team's core, are still too young to be counted on every day. On a better team, they probably wouldn't be in the middle of the lineup yet, and Acta continues to preach patience with them as they return from injuries.
"Let's give it more time. It's only been a couple of games," Acta said. "I know they were struggling at the beginning, but they haven't been out there 105 games. I'm not surprised at all about the struggle. It's been awhile now."
PHILLIES 2, NATIONALS 1: The only damage Philadelphia did to Nationals rookie starter Collin Balester came on Chase Utley's two-run homer in the third inning. But Philadelphia's Brett Myers didn't need any more support than that.
He allowed just four hits in seven innings, giving up his only run in the eighth on Willie Harris' groundout to third.
The Nationals had a chance to score in the seventh inning, but the frame ended when Ryan Zimmerman tried to go from second to third after Eric Bruntlett juggled a grounder. Zimmerman was caught off second after Jimmy Rollins recovered the ball.
Balester pitched six innings, earning his first major league quality start by giving up two runs and six hits.
