After the Houston Astros put up a crooked number in the fourth inning and took a 6-2 lead it looked like curtains for the Washington Nationals. Eventually it was, but the Nationals made a noble effort to erase the mistakes of starter Jordan Zimmermann in a 7-6 loss to Houston.
In the top of the sixth inning Jerry Hairston Jr. put the Nats within two by hitting a two-run homerun. It was the second two-run shot of the night for the Nationals as Michael Morse put one for two over the wall in the third inning. Later shortstop Ian Desmond would add an RBI single and Morse would score in the seventh after Wilson Ramos hit into a double play. Ramos had a particularly rough night going 1-for-5 with a strikeout and stranded six of the 15 men the Nationals left on base.
In the end, reliever Todd Coffey gave up the winning run for Houston in the sixth when Michael Bourn hit an RBI single and the Astros bullpen shutdown the Nats offense the rest of the game. Zimmermann gave up six runs on seven hits, walking none and striking out five in five innings of work. It is a performance he will probably look to forget.
The Nationals fall to 48-49 and back into fourth place in the NL East behind the New York Mets.