Ryan Zimmerman had a career night in Baltimore, hitting three home runs in three consecutive at bats — and notching four RBIs — but the Nationals were victimized by Orioles’ first baseman Chris Davis and a six run 7th inning, and the Nationals lost at Camden Yards, 9-6.

Zimmerman’s home runs came in the first, fourth and fifth innings, sending Baltimore starter Chris Tillman to the pines and staking the Nationals to a 6-2 lead. But in the 7th inning the Orioles leaped on Washington starter Jordan Zimmermann and the Nationals for six hits, including home runs by Steve Pearce and Davis.

The Baltimore victory showed just how lethal their line-up can be: while Davis could not equal Zimmerman’s home run total, he went 4-4 on the night and hit two round trippers of his own. His second, in the seventh inning off of reliever Tyler Clippard, put the game out of reach for the Nats.

“That one hurt,” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said of the loss, and noted that the Orioles victory came in a ballpark with a reputation as a launching pad for free swingers. “I thought Zim had pretty good stuff,” Johnson said, “but this ballpark can eat you alive.”

Indeed, the Ace of Auburndale’s “stuff” was effective for six innings, as Zimmermann seemed headed for his ninth win. But Zimmermann couldn’t make it out of the seventh, surrendering singles to Ryan Flaherty and Nate McLouth, a double to Manny Machado — and a Davis home run — before being relieved by Clippard.

“I look up, and we’re losing,” Zimmermann said after the loss, his third of the season. “Those guys give me six runs like that, I’ve got to do a better job and we should win this ballgame. It’s solely on me [with] this one.”

Despite the loss, the Nationals showed again that they’re capable of putting the ball in play. In addition to Zimmerman’s three home runs, Roger Bernadina also went long and the Nationals accumulated eight hits, with Zimmerman, Bernadina and Denard Span coming away with RBIs.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Ryan Zimmerman wasn’t the only National Leaguer hitting the long ball on Wednesday. Out in Chicago, back-up Cubs’ catcher Dioner Navarro hit three of his own, as the Cubs pummeled the White Sox, 9-3 . . .

Navarro had never hit more than one home run in a game, telling reporters after the win that he might have hit two in one game when he played Little League baseball. Navarro’s homers came in the 2nd, 4th and 7th innings and (unlike the Zimmerman home runs) each of them was pulled . . .

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While the debut of Double-A pitcher Nathan Karns will not go down in the scorebooks as a “W” for the young righty, the Texas Tech product threw a strike-filled impressive 4.1 innings — and the Nationals, behind two home runs from Adam LaRoche, drubbed the Orioles on Tuesday night, 9-3.

Washington’s interleague victory may mark the moment when the Nationals finally got their offense back on track. In addition to the two home runs from LaRoche, super-subs Roger Bernadina and Tyler Moore also went long, as the home towners cracked thirteen hits against a surprisingly ineffective Baltimore pitching staff.

“It was great to see [the offense come back to life],” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. “Some guys usually take two or three strikes, and they went up there and hit line drives. We jumped all over a 97 mile-an-hour fastball, and that made my whole night.”

Johnson also praised his young starter, appearing on the mound in the place of injured Ross Detwiler. “I thought [Nathan] handled himself well, first start against a good hitting ballclub,” Johnson said. “I know he was nervous, but I like the way he went after the hitters. He is in for another start.”

In an up-and-down season, Tuesday’s game showed Nationals’ fans what their team can do. Their starting pitching was effective, the team hit with runners in scoring position — and the bullpen was lights-out. After Karns left in the fifth, Zach Duke needed just one pitch, inducing a double play, to save the Nationals from a potential Baltimore rally.

Duke was followed to the mound by Drew Storen, Tyler Clippard and Fernando Abad, all of whom kept the Orioles off the scoreboard. Storen was as effective as he’s been all year, giving up a single hit in a single inning of work. Tyler Clippard gave up two hits, but then induced three successive fly balls — and Fernando Abad authored a 1-2-3 9th inning.

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Dan Haren notched his fourth win, the home towners sprayed nine hits and the Washington bullpen held the Tigers scoreless in three relief innings, as the Nationals swept the two game Detroit mini-series by a score of 5-4 on Thursday.

While the Tigers outhit the Nationals (12-9), Washington was able to put runs on the board early in the game. The Nationals scored three in the first inning and two in the second — and that’s all the team would need to notch its fourth win in a row. Ryan Mattheus, Drew Storen and Rafael Soriano held the Kalines scoreless when Haren left after six complete.

The victim of the Nationals early run surge was Detroit righty Doug Fister, who entered the game with a snappy 2.48 earned run average. Fister, with Verlander, is considered one of Detroit’s elite shut down pitchers, but he gave up a lead-off double to Denard Span in the 1st and then three successive singles: to Ryan Zimmerman, Adam LaRoche and Ian Desmond.

Fister proved as ineffective in the second, hitting Span and walking Roger Bernadina before giving up two runs, courtesy of singles from (once again) Zimmerman and LaRoche. “It was probably his worst outing of the year,” Tigers catcher Alex Avila said of Fister’s performance. “He’s pitched really good for quite a while now. You have to give him credit, he battled.”

Despite Fister’s troubles, the Tigers were able to rally against Haren in the 6th. The veteran righty walked Jhonny Peralta with one out and Omar Infante dropped a surprise bunt single to put two men on with two outs. Pinch hitter Matt Tuiasosopo then stepped to the plate and put a 2-1 Haren offering over the fence in left center.

The Tuiasosopo blast put Detroit back into the game, with a good shot at winning. But the Nationals’ bullpen, an otherwise worrisome unit so far this season, came on to shut down the Tigers. Ryan Mattheus, Drew Storen and Rafael Soriano each pitched effectively, with Soriano gaining his 12th save of the season.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Doug Fister was 3-12 with the Mariners in 2011 when the Seattle front office decided they’d seen enough. The swapped Fister to Detroit for Francisco Martinez, Charlie Furbush and Casper Wells. It was a steal — Fister went 8-1 the rest of the way, with a breathtaking 1.79 ERA . . .

But while the Fister theft was lopsided, it was (arguably) no more so than San Diego’s decision to trade first base prospect Anthony Rizzo to the Chicago Cubs six months later. While it’s a baseball given that you should never give up young pitching, new Cubs General Manager Jed Hoyer decided his team needed Rizzo so badly that he was willing to part with uber prospect Andrew Cashner . . .

Friars’ fans will argue that the Rizzo-Cashner trade isn’t even close to being a Fister-like bust. After struggling all of last year, Cashner’s arm has finally come alive and the imposing (6-6, 220 pounds), Texan has regained his command. Exiled to the bullpen, Cashner emerged in only his second start of the season to throw 7.1 effective innings against the Marlins earlier this week . . .

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In what promised to be the beginning of a decades-long duel of starting pitchers, New York’s Matt Harvey outpitched Washington ace Stephen Strasburg — with the Mets taking the first of a three game series in New York, 7-1. Strasburg was effective, but rookie Harvey was more so, striking out seven and giving up just four hits in seven complete innings of work.

The difference in the game was the long ball: Strasburg gave up home runs to Ike Davis (in the 6th inning, with no one on) and to Lucas Duda (also in the 6th inning). Both players ended up homering twice in the game. But other than giving up those two home runs, Strasburg’s line was nearly identical to that of Harvey — with Harvey throwing 105 pitches and Strasburg 111.

Despite the nearly identical pitching lines, Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson admitted that his young ace had trouble with his command. “[Strasburg] was missing all night, pitching behind hitters all night, threw a lot of pitches, but we had our chances,” he said.

“I want to go out there and help this team win,” Strasburg said after the disappointing loss. “It doesn’t matter who is facing us. We are all out there as a collective group to try to get the job done. We weren’t able to do that tonight.”

Strasburg didn’t get much help from his infield or from Nationals’ hitters. Ian Desmond booted a ball off the bat of Nats’ killer Jordany Valdespin in the bottom of the 1st inning that led to two New York runs, and the Nats’ were unable to capitalize on a bases loaded no out situation in the 7th – and came away with nothing.

Harvey was most impressive in the bases loaded 7th, working out of a jam by striking out Kurt Suzuki, inducing a pop-up from Roger Bernadina and getting Denard Span to ground out to second. “He has electric stuff. He is an ace,” Ian Desmond said of Harvey. “It kind of takes time to know who you are facing. I think we may have seen him once before. But he is on a hot streak. He has good stuff.”

The Nats 7-1 loss also (and once again) highlighted the problems Davey Johnson is having with his bullpen. Lefty Zach Duke was effective enough in his one inning of relief of Strasburg, but the same cannot be said of Drew Storen — who gave up three runs, including home runs to Davis and Duda in his one inning of work. The home runs put the game out of reach.

Photos: AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek

The September roller coaster continues. The Nationals were nine outs away from a 4-0 victory, then three outs away from a 4-3 victory, but in neither instance could they hold the lead — and it took a heroic 10th inning that included a two RBI double from Kurt Suzuki and a lights-out relief performance from Craig Stammen for the team to come away with a 6-4 victory in St. Louis.

The extra inning triumph shaved the Nationals magic number to clinch the N.L. East flag to one, which could come today when they close out their series against the Cardinals. “We’re going to be ready, lace it up and let’s get it done,” Washington closer Drew Storen said after last night’s win.”

The Nationals were staked to an early lead from left fielder Michael Morse, whose line drive grand slam home run in the first inning provided a strange start for the game: after the umpires retreated to the clubhouse to determine whether the ball had actually left the field, they required Morse and his teammates to rerun the bases.

While at the plate, Morse added his own touch — swinging a phantom bat, complete with a phantom swing. “I guess I didn’t have to do that,” he admitted, following the victory, “but if I didn’t do it and they were like, ‘No! You’re out!’ I would never sleep again.”

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Monday night was the pitchers’ duel that wasn’t, with N.L. ERA leader Ryan Vogelsong facing off against Nats’ southpaw Gio Gonzalez in a showdown of team aces. But by the end of the night, with the score at 14-2, the Nationals had set a season record for runs and equaled a season mark in hits: with 21. And Vogelsong? He’d lasted all of 2.2 and fallen from first in the N.L. in ERA to fourth.

“The boys are in a good mood,” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said after the blow-out. “Just like the skipper. It was fun to watch the offense. We beat up on a pretty good pitcher.” But San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy, tossed early in the game for arguing a call at first, had a different perspective. “What could go wrong went wrong,” he said simply, “and they made some pretty good contact.”

The Nationals hitting and scoring onslaught began modestly, with the Nationals on the board with one run in the first inning. But the Nationals pushed across seven runs in the third — with two walks, six singles and a Kurt Suzuki double that cleared the bases. Suzuki was 3-6 on the night, with four RBIs.

“They’re going out there swinging it,” starter Gio Gonzalez, who notched his 15th win, said of his teammates. “It just felt like you could just feel this energy inside the dugout where everyone was just pulling for everyone.” Gonzalez’s outing was eclipsed by the chatter over Washington’s offense, but he provided another solid start — 6.2 innings with six strikeouts and two earned runs.

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You can understand why the Arizona Diamondbacks are so high on Patrick Corbin. A young lefty who came to Arizona from Anaheim, where he was a second round draft choice, Corbin was a kick-in in the Dan Heran trade back in July of 2010. On Sunday, at Chase Field, he mastered the Nationals by throwing seven innings of four hit ball and helping to end the Nationals’ eight game winning streak, 7-4.

Southpaw Corbin came into the game with a 3-4 record, but the Nationals could not get to him until the 7th inning, when Danny Espinosa doubled and scored on a Ryan Zimmerman single. Pinch runner Cesar Izturis then scored on a Adam LaRoche sacrifice fly.

The Nationals pitching, on the other hand, was less than dominant. Starter Ross Detwiler lasted only 4.2 innings, giving up three hits and four earned runs. The Nationals also looked sloppy in the field, with newly acquired catcher Kurt Sukuki registering an “E2″ on a throwing error in the 2nd, which was preceded by an unusual Ryan Zimmerman toss to first for his ninth error of the 2012 campaign.

Corbin’s performance was one of the best the Nationals have seen this year. The only base runner he allowed through six innings was Bryce Harper, who got on first on an infield single, and then was picked off. The pick-off led to an unusual scoring anomaly: with Corbin potentially facing the minimum 27 batters, while giving up a single hit.

The Nationals ended that hope in the 7th, battling back for two runs, against a rookie who looked unperturbed by the Nats’ mini-onslaught. Even in the key 7th inning, the Nationals continued to have trouble with Corbin, who pitched his team out of a potential big inning by striking out Tyler Moore.

Arizona fans were somewhat mystified by Corbin’s outing. The young lefty had posted an ERA of 5.73 over his first four appearances since being called up from Triple-A Reno, and there was no sense that he would turn that around. But his command was much better in this game then his first four: he set down sixteen in a row on just 66 pitches through six innings.

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