Dominic Brown’s two out single in the bottom of the 9th scored the winning, walk-off run against the Nationals, and the Phillies came away with a nail biting 5-4 win against Washington at Citizens Bank Park on Monday.The loss put the Nationals back at one game under .500, with a 34-35 record.

Reliever Fernando Abad was credited with the loss. “I guess he had a changeup and left it a little bit up, and that was the ballgame,” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. “We fought back and it was a good ballgame. The bullpen did a good job. I can’t fault that. It was a tough loss.”

“I was trying to stay as short and quick as I can, especially with a tough lefty like Abad,” Brown said of his 9th inning game winning single. “It feels great. It’s an unbelievable feeling. It’s priceless.” The Brown game winner saved the night for Jonathan Papelbon, who was credited with a blown save (his first of the season) and a win.

The Nationals tied the game in the top of the 9th when first baseman Chad Tracy lofted a Papelbon offering just inside the foul pole in right field. The Tracy home run came on an 0-2 pitch from Papelbon, after the uber-sub had fouled off successive inside offerings.

“You tie it late and everybody’s emotions are running high, everybody is feeling good, and then they come out, put together some good at-bats in the end, and then steal it right back from you,” Tracy said of his game saving home run.

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The Washington Nationals beat themselves on Sunday, but they had help: Cleveland’s Corey Kluber wiggled out of numerous Nationals’ scoring opportunities, throwing eight innings of seven hit baseball, as the Indians went on to defeat Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals, 2-0.

The Nationals had a chance to score against Kluber early, in the fourth inning, when they had runners on first and third with one out; but Adam LaRoche, Jayson Werth and Ian Desmond struck out to end the threat. In the sixth inning, the Nationals had runners on first and third with one out and also couldn’t score. The Nationals left 21 runners on base.

Give credit to Kluber. “I tell you what, that guy that threw for them today … the stuff that he had, that’s probably top-five stuff that we’ll see all year,” Jayson Werth said of the Indians’ pitcher. “He had some really good stuff. Especially when he had to make pitches, he even stepped it up a little bit.”

The game marked the return of starter Stephen Strasburg from the disabled list and he pitched well: he threw five complete innings and gave up a single hit, while striking out four. “He was a little bit rusty and didn’t have his command, but I thought he settled in pretty well,” skipper Davey Johnson said.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Anthony Rendon continued his hot hand on Sunday, with a 3-4 day. He’s been a spark for the Nationals since being recalled and is handling his chances well at second. Jayson Werth is also back in stride: he was 4-10 in Cleveland . . .

The Nationals pull into Philadelphia to face a Phillies’ team that is on the verge of deciding whether to sell, or hope for a seven or eight game winning streak. Doing that would put them back in contention for a Wild Card spot, but the Phillies have struggled all season . . .

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The Nats won their fourth game in five outings and won their away series in Colorado by taking the third game of the three game set, 5-4. The big hit in the game came off the bat of Ryan Zimmerman, whose 8th inning double off of Colorado reliever Matt Belisle scored Roger Bernadina with the go-ahead, and deciding run.

The victory marked the return of lefty starter Ross Detwiler to the Washington rotation, and the youngster picked up where he left off. While throwing only five innings, Detwiler notched two strike outs without a walk. While Colorado put up three runs against him, the Detwiler outing was good news for the Nats, who have been pitching short.

The game was marred by a Rockies-umpire standoff in the 7th inning. With Ian Desmond on second, Colorado’s reliever Wilton Lopez was called for two back-to-back balks — which brought Desmond home. The Rockies sniped at the umpires for the calls, but they stood. Lopez used a rule-breaking “stop-start motion” with his hands.

“Actually, he did it three times. They only called it twice,” Washington manager Davey Johnson said following the victory. “He kept going toward his glove, and then he would stop. They called two out of three. But you can’t be moving toward your glove and stop. It’s an automatic balk.”

That might have been the least of Colorado’s problems. Super-hitter Carlos Gonzalez left the game after he had a foul tip hit off his ankle while he stood in the on-deck circle in the first inning, Dexter Fowler took a Detwiler pitch off his right hand in the third, and Troy Tulowitzki aggravated his sore ribs when he dove for a grounder in the eighth inning.

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Ross Ohlendorf returned to the major leagues on Wednesday night, and led the Washington Nationals to a 5-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Ohlendorf threw six innings of two hit baseball and, after the win, Nats’ manager Davey Johnson said he was going to find a way “to keep him around.”

Signed this past winter by the Nationals as a minor league free agent, Ohlendorf pitched for the Padres in 2012 (he was 4-4), and was anxious to get back to the big leagues. His most successful season was in 2009, when he was 11-10 for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“I knew that I needed to pitch well,” Ohlendorf said. “Their lineup’s really good, too. I knew I was capable of having a good game, I just needed to make sure to do it.”

“He had good movement on [his pitches],” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said after the win. “He used the curveball and slider, used both sides of the plate, and I liked his windup, too. That reminded me of some old-fashioned windups.”

Three of the Nationals five runs were produced by shortstop Ian Desmond, who was 2-3 on the night with three RBIs. Desmond is in the midst of a fourteen game hitting streak, and is 14-34 in June, raising his batting average to .282. Desmond is hitting .421 over the last seven games.

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After hitting .290 with 27 doubles, 18 home runs and 72 RBIs in 2012, Tyler Colvin was shocked that the Colorado Rockies didn’t include him on their 25 man roster out of Spring Training. But he knew that sooner or later he’d be back with the big club — and would contribute in a big way.

So Tuesday night’s performance by the former Cub was a vindication for the young and talented outfielder, as he led the Colorado Rockies in an 8-3 slaughter of the Washington Nationals. Colvin went 2-4, hitting two home runs and notching four RBIs.

“It’s one thing to be here, but I know I can contribute to this team and help this team win,” Colvin said following the Rockies’ victory. “Games like tonight justify why I’m here.”

Colvin’s victorious return came at the expense of Nats’ starter Dan Haren, who pitched well into the 5th inning, but then gave up two home runs, three singles and a double in the single frame. “He was pitching a great ballgame, making all his pitches. I don’t know what happened,” Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson said of Haren’s outing.

The problem for Haren all season has been the big inning, and the long ball. “I just can’t keep the ball in the ballpark,” Haren said. “That’s what it’s coming down to. They’re good hitters too and they’re going to make me pay for my mistakes, but I’ve never had so much trouble with homers in my career.”

The Nationals scattered eight hits in the game, but they couldn’t match Colorado’s power numbers: and they couldn’t take advantage of a so-so outing from Rockies starter Jhoulys Chacin. Chacin, was having a mediocre 2013, until the Nationals came to town. Chacin scattered seven hits in just five innings but, unlike Haren, he kept the Nats in the ballpark.

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The Nationals came from three runs down to take the second game of a day-night doubleheader, beating the Twins last night at Nationals Park, 5-4. It was the first time the team had rallied from three runs behind all season. After the victory, the Nationals headed to Colorado, where they will begin a three city nine game road trip.

“This was huge, we really needed this,” shortstop Ian Desmond said after the Nationals had swept the Sunday twin bill. After posting a 7-0 blowout on Sunday afternoon, the Nats continued to scorch Twins’ pitching with ten hits, scoring single runs in the first, third, fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

“It was a good feeling when you’re behind and you keep chipping away, you don’t give up. This was probably our best ballgame,” center fielder Denard Span told reporters after the win. “Normally early on in the season when we would get behind, we would just fold and give away at-bats. [Today] we just kept fighting and having good at-bats.”

The key to victory in the second game, however, was not simply the hitting, but the bullpen’s continued ability to keep their opponents out of the scoring column. After a rocky outing from Nathan Karns, Craig Stammen pitched two innings of hitless ball to allow the Nationals to get back in the game.

The offense responded by mounting a comeback that was sparked by a Denard Span triple in the 6th (which scored Anthony Rendon — tying the game), and by back-to-back doubles (from Adam LaRoche and Ian Desmond) that put the Nationals on top to stay in the bottom of the 7th.

In this game, at least, the victory proceeded as the Nationals intended: with Tyler Clippard, Drew Storen and Rafael Soriano pitching the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. Tyler Clippard got the win, Drew Storen notched his eighth hold and Rafael Soriano accounted for his sixteenth save.

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A Ryan Doumit single in the 11th inning off of reliever Craig Stammen gave the Minnesota Twins an extra innings 4-3 win at Nationals Park on Saturday, sinking the home towners to two games under .500. The Doumit single deepened Washington skipper Davey Johnson’s sense of frustration over the Nats inability to score.

Stammen was the seventh reliever used by Johnson on Saturday, and the only one of the seven to give up a run to Minnesota. The slate of relievers followed another good but not great outing from southpaw Gio Gonzalez who threw six complete innings while, unusually, giving up four walks.

Despite the walks, it’s hard to imagine that Gonzalez could have given his teammates a better chance to win. He threw 114 pitches, 75 of them for strikes. But frustration set in for Gonzalez when he walked batters, and he showed it on the mound. He remains stuck at just three wins for the season.

Washington’s bullpen was surprisingly effective, particularly given the new faces that now populate it. Fernando Abad, Drew Storen, Tyler Clippard, Rafael Soriano, Erik Davis and Ian Krol all contributed on Saturday, holding the Twins scoreless in four complete innings of work.

Washington’s line-up, meanwhile, was again ineffective against a starter that they should have hit — but couldn’t. Minnesota’s Kevin Correia threw into the 7th inning, while registering seven strikeouts. “We got some hits, but didn’t string them together,” Washington first sacker Adam LaRoche said following the loss. “We need to start getting three and four in an inning, pushing some guys across.”

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