Sunday sweep and weep: Phillies complete weekend series, take 4 of 4 over Nats 8-6.

Lackluster. Just lackluster.

Today the Nationals lost their 4th in a row to the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-6. The Nationals led the game from the second inning through the 7th, but a bizarre error in the 8th inning led to three Phillies runs and their victory.

Despite the Phillies starter, Chan Ho Park, exiting the game in the second inning (having thrown an absurdly high 63 pitches). He was charged with five runs and had four walks. I thought that this was good news for the Nats, knock out the opposing teams starter and work on their weakened bullpen. Sadly, it didn't work out that way.

The Nats starter, Jordan Zimmermann, had another shakey start, allowing five runs and 3 walks, but composed himself and struck out 6.

The Nats just cannot seem to hold a lead. Today's was another 8th inning collapse. I won't even go into Jésus Colomes bizarre throwing error which cost the Nats the lead. It's just too depressing to discuss.

In the bottom of the 4th inning, Bob Carpenter and Rob Dibble on MASN were discussing the President's Race, and "Teddy"'s continued woes in that department. Carpenter said something to the effect of, "It gets harder to watch every day".

He could have been speaking of the Nationals continued losing.

Well, so long to the Philadelphia Phillies (and their fans...) for a while, and hello to the team from the other end of Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Pirates, whose record isn't nearly as good as their friends from across the state. Ross Detweiler will take the mound for the Nationals. It should be a good game.