The description that fits Washington starter Gio Gonzalez — that he deserved better than what he got — might have been said for any of Washington’s starters during the team’s three game series against the Dodgers. Gonzalez pitched more than well enough to win, but the Dodgers came away with a 2- victory on Sunday to sweep the three game series on L.A.

The problem, as is now clear, is hitting — or, rather, the lack of it. The Nats smacked out three paltry hits (scoring two) on Friday, a solid eight hits (scoring three) on Saturday, and a measly four hits yesterday. Certainly the triumvirate of Kershaw, Billingsley and Capuano had something to do with that, but combined with the four hits in the last game at San Diego, that’s an average of five hits per game — hardly the breakfast of champions.

Yesterday was not emblamatic, it was worse. The Nationals seemed incapable of threatening lefty Chris Capuano: Ian Desmond struck out three times, Espinosa twice and the D.C. Nine left thirteen runners on base. Gonzalez pitched brilliantly into the sixth, but then suddenly lost his command. He later admitted that he was “trying to be too perfect — to throw pitches too perfectly.” More simply, Gonzalez knew that his team’s anemic production meant that he had to be perfect. That’s a lot to put on a pitcher, even someone as good as Gonzalez.

It’s not as if this isn’t known, of course. A big part of the reason that Mike Rizzo has brought Bryce Harper (he was 1-3 again yesterday) up to the big club is that the Nats are missing big guns Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse. Thank the baseball gods that Adam LaRoche has been hot; but despite his fire, he can’t possibly carry the team alone. The Nationals open against the Arizona Diamondbacks tomorrow night at Nationals Park.

Three wild pitches by closer Henry Rodriguez, and a walk-off home run by all-world Matt Kemp on a pitch from Tom Gorzelanny in the bottom of the 10th, stole a victory in Los Angeles from the Nationals, spoiling both the debut of rookie Bryce Harper and another superb outing from Nats’ starter Stephen Strasburg. Until the bottom of the 9th, the Nationals looked destined for victory — the result of a sacrifice fly by Harper and a Wilson Ramos RBI single.

The disheartening loss means that the Nationals must salvage the third game of their tilt against the Trolleys to avoid a three game sweep. This is the first series loss by the Nationals this year. The good news in the loss was the performance of Strasburg — who allowed one run on five hits over seven innings — and the debut of Harper, who scorched a double to center field, drove in a run on a sacrifice fly, and threw a bullet to the plate to nearly nail a Dodgers’ runner.

“I knew it was going to be a loud stadium tonight, so I just wanted to go out there and keep my composure, pound the strike zone and do my best and keep the team in the ballgame,” Strasburg said following the loss. “This was a tough one for us.” Washington manager Davey Johnson praised both Strasburg and Harper after the loss. “He had an outstanding game. There was nothing I didn’t know,” Johnson said about Harper. “He had quality at-bats. He made one hell of a throw, running hard.”

The difference in the game came with the Washington bullpen. The usually competent Henry Rodriguez seemed anything but on Saturday night, throwing the ball nearly everywhere but in the strike zone. But Johnson thought that Rodriguez would settle down and get out of the jam, and remained committed to his fireballer. “In a tough situation, [Rodriguez] battled back and got two outs,” Johnson said. He was one pitch away from getting us out of it. I was proud of him. He battled back.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: While Davey Johnson defended his closer, there are oodles of Nats fans that have their doubts. “Here was the biggest mistake,” a Nats partisan wrote to us this morning. “McCatty never visited him to calm him down. The less control the harder he threw. Just the opposite of what he should do. And no one told him . . . ”

If last night is any indication, Bryce Harper is here to stay. He’s “Charlie Hustle” on the base paths, seems more than comfortable in left field, and hits the ball with authority. No one will challenge him for his position, particularly now that Mark DeRosa has been put on the disabled list. Tyler Moore was brought up from Syracuse to back up Adam LaRoche at first and “spell” Harper in left . . .

Gorzelanny, by the way, was drafted in the second round of the 2003 draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who thought he’d be a good starter. Kemp was also drafted in 2003 — in the sixth round. The Dodgers weren’t sure he’d amount to much. Kemp leads the league in batting average, home runs, on base percentage, slugging, RBIs, hits and runs . . .

Los Angeles lefty Clayton Kershaw dominated the Washington Nationals in a closely fought contest in Chavez Ravine on Friday night — and the Dodgers took the first game of the three game set 3-2. While Kershaw later said that he struggled during the game, Nationals hitters couldn’t solve him, though Adam LaRoche was 2-4 with a home run.

“It was a tough ballgame,” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. “Kershaw made a lot of quality pitches. He crowded right-handed hitters all night. We weren’t able to hit the ball real hard.” In a match-up of dueling lefties, Kershaw outmatched Washington starter Ross Detwiler. But Detwiler held his own — the difference being Kershaw’s experience. Detwiler was more than adequate, allowing three runs on five hits over six innings.

The continuing good news for the Nationals is Adam Laroche’s firecracker start. LaRoche’s 2-4 night kept the Nationals in the game, gave them a chance to win — and showed that Kershaw was merely human. “Against a guy like that, it’s straight grind mode — trying to put the barrel on something,” LaRoche said of Kershaw.  “You hope he makes a mistake. He is one of those pitchers that is effectively wild. He can throw one up under your chin, and just as easily throw one down and away in the same at-bat.”

This never gets old: righty Jordan Zimmermann — the Ace of Auburndale — threw six complete innings, gave up four hits, struck out six and walked none to record his first victory of the year, a 7-2 pasting of the San Diego Padres. Zimmermann, who has few bad outings (and, in fact, no bad outings), finally received some run support, allowing Davey Johnson to lift him in the 6th inning.

The Nationals held a 2-1 lead going into the seventh, a slim margin, but put four on the scoreboard in the top of that frame. Ian Desmond singled, Danny Espinosa singled, Mark DeRosa was walked, and Adam Laroche’s single to right scored Desmond. When Jayson Werth walked, that brought in Espinosa, and the floodgates opened. After Ankiel struck out, Wilson Ramos singled to right, bringing in two more runs. The Nationals never relinquished the lead.

“I felt good,” Zimmermann said. “I threw a lot of changeups today. I threw quite a few, and there were some good ones in there. I had a really good curveball, but I didn’t have much of a slider. Whenever I got into trouble, I mixed in a curveball. Everything was working today.”

In fact, everything was working. In addition to his stellar pitching performance, Zimmermann singled in the second run of the game, putting the Nationals on top, 2-0. Manager Davey Johnson also praised LaRoche, who was 3-4 in the game, and is now hitting .313 on the season. “He has been carrying us,” Johnson said. “And he’s usually a slow starter, so the change in that trend has been huge. He has been our guy in the lineup.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Our friend Jenn over at Nationals Fangirl says that she concurs with our view on Ryan Zimmerman — “I agree about Ryan Zimmerman. He seems to be a delicate flower.” She has a nice post this morning on Adam LaRoche . . . Ryan Zimmerman’s MRI, meanwhile, showed no structural damage to his shoulder, which is great news for Nationals fans. He should be back soon, but we don’t know exactly when . . .

The Padres remind us of the Houston Astros, bascially a development squad with some potential. Their best pitcher, Edinson Volquez (obtained in a multi-player deal with the Reds), goes tonight. Volquez has been inconsistent this year, one of the reasons that Reds were willing to part with him, with a 4.30 ERA in four outings . . .

The big deal in the trade with the Reds, in which the Friars gave up the more than competent Mat Latos, was not Volquez, but first baseman Yonder Alonso — who didn’t have a place in Cincinnati with all-world Joey Votto at first. The other scoop was first rounder Yasmani Grandal, a catcher with (here comes the cliche) a “huge upside” who’s now in the San Diego farm system . . .

This is not an uninteresting team. That guy out in left field, Chris Denorfia, is a heck of a player, though with little power. He sprays the field, plays hard, and is good defensively. He seems to come up with lots of clutch hits. This is not Willie Mays, mind you, but Denorfia is good. Oh, and by the way — he came up in the Reds system, went over to Oakland, and then signed as a free agent in San Diego . . .

If you’re not familiar with the Padres, keep your eye on Andrew Cashner. The Cubs had to give up a lot to get future major league first baseman Anthony Rizzo this last winter, and Andrew Cashner was it. He has a “Powder River Fastball” (as Bob Carpenter would say) — it can saw off your bat. He’ll anchor the Padres bullpen for a long time to come . . .

Two weeks before the release of “Moneyball” last September, Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane decided that he wouldn’t have anything to say about the film. That decision led to speculation that Beane was “uncomfortable being cast as a genius at a time when the standings tell such a different story.”

While Beane later disputed that theory (“Billy is not the kind of guy who is looking for fame,” A’s owner Lew Wolff explained), you can’t blame A’s fans for speculating: the 2011 version of Beane’s A’s were in the midst of a failed season, and would finish well back of both the Rangers and Angels in the American League West.

But what’s astonishing about the 2011 A’s is that they were actually typical of how Beane does business. He builds a team around young pitching, waits for it to mature, harvests the benefits in the form of temporary appearances in the playoffs and then — just when the players he’s developed are about to make big bucks — he trades them away and starts again. It’s a standard practice for many small market teams, but Beane has made it an artform.

Take the “2002″ Oakland A’s — the “Moneyball” A’s. While the Brad Pitt film focused on Beane’s signing of players to replace departed free agents (primarily Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon), the team was built on a trio of young and talented hurlers: Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder. With them (and okay, with Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford), the A’s nearly went to the post season and, with a little luck, might have ended up in yet another World Series. But when that didn’t happen, Beane does what he always does: he shipped out his young hurlers (Hudson was traded to the Braves, Mulder to the Cardinals and Zito was signed as a free agent by the Giants) and started over.

Starting over for Beane means developing new young pitching — not putting former catchers at first base. The newest trio of developing young arms was even better than the Hudson-Mulder-Zito crew. It took a while, but Beane eventually reconstructed a starting staff that was, again, the talk of the American League: Trevor Cahill (12-14 last year, 18-8 in 2010), Gio Gonzalez (16-12 last year, 15-9 in 2010) and Brett Anderson (injured this year, but 11-11 in 2009, at aged 21).

Surprisingly — and shockingly for many A’s fans — Beane decided this trio would not do it, and he shipped them out: landing a soft tossing lefty (Tom Milone) and Brad Peacock (a potential Brad Radke) along with two others from Washington, and an unknown outfielder (now at Triple-A in Sacramento) and two pitchers from Arizona. Very few pundits gave Beane the edge, and he may well have given up one of the very best young lefties in Gonzalez. To top it all off, Beane then shipped out All Star closer Andrew Bailey to Boston.

So what the hell happened? Bailey, an A.L. Rookie of the Year, said that he understood what Beane was trying to do. “That organization is heading down a different road where they’re trying to get younger and build for a future in San Jose,” he said. Well, maybe: but it’s hard to get younger than 24 (Cahill), or Gonzalez (26), and Bailey was hardly ancient (27). And Oakland fans were decidedly not impressed: the howls could have been heard in Nationals Park.

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The Marlins must be confused. Last year, and the year before that — and the year before that — a two run top-of-the-ninth comeback would have almost certainly yielded an extra inning victory for the Miami Nine. But things have changed. After collapsing in the last frame, the Nationals not only kept the Marlins off the board in the 10th, they took advantage of a high off-target throw from Miami first sacker Gaby Sanchez to Jose Reyes covering second. The error, put the winning run at third base, 90 feet away. Ian Desmond then won the game on a walk off sacrifice fly that scored Ramos.

The world is turned upside down: the Nationals have beaten the Fish two in row, have assured themselves of a series win, are now 8-2 in their last ten (all at home), and 12-4 overall — not only sitting alone atop the N.L. East, but now viewed as one of the best teams in the National League. They are a full two games up on Atlanta, three on the Mets, and four on Philadelphia.

If there was a sour note on the afternoon, it was that closer Brad Lidge gave up a walk to Hanley Ramirez and then a game tying home run to Logan Morrison. Lidge’s inability to close out the game victimized Stephen Strasburg, in line for his third win of the season. The heroes with the bats on Saturday were Desmond, Jayson Werth and Wilson Ramos, all of whom went 2-4. Werth hit his first homer of the season, and upped his average to .322.

Nationals’ starter Stephen Strasburg had another quality outing, throwing six innings of four hit baseball, and matching Nats’ curse Anibal Sanchez (who went seven innings, and gave up only five hits) pitch for pitch. Strasburg threw 94 pitches, six of them for strikes. Detwiler, Strasburg and Zimmermann now sit atop the National League leader board in ERA.

Chicago White Sox hurler Philip Humber has just finished throwing a perfect game against the Seattle Mariners in Seattle. It’s the 21st perfect game in baseball history. It is the White Sox eighteenth no hitter, their third perfect game. Humber had nine strikeouts in dominating Seattle hitters.