The Washington Nationals failed to sweep the Philadelphia Phillies on May 6, losing by the score of 9-3. Cole Hamels of the Phillies picked up his fourth win of the year while Jordan Zimmermann had his third loss.

Jordan Zimmermann

Zimmermann pitched a solid game on May 6, going six innings while giving up three runs on seven hits along with one strikeout. He was simply outpitched by Cole Hamels, who went eight innings and gave up only one run to go with eight strikeouts. It is the second straight loss for Jordan, who gave up four runs in a loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in his previous start, but he has certainly pitched well enough to be 3-1 and not 1-3; the offense for the team has just failed to score runs whenever he has been on the mound this year, but I expect it to turn around sooner or later.

Jayson Werth

The Nationals suffered the biggest blow of the game in the sixth inning, when Jayson Werth broke his wrist sliding for a ball in the outfield. Even though Werth hasn’t been playing that great in 2012, the last thing the Nationals needed was for another person to be injured, as Ryan Zimmerman, Adam LaRoche, and Michael Morse have all had spent time on the bench this early in the season. Hopefully Xavier Nady or Roger Bernadina can step up their game to fill in for Werth, but either way one looks at it, the Nationals will need to continue their stellar pitching to stay in games over the coming weeks.

Another Series Win

Even with the negative news, there are still some positives to take out of the series against the Phillies. The Nationals won two out of three games, making it the third straight series won against an opponent from the National League East and the fourth win in five games for the ball club. Also, even though both Stephen Lombardozzi and Rick Ankiel failed to get a hit in the last game of the series, both hit well over .300 overall, with Stephen going 6 for 15 and Rick 6 for 12 at the plate. The Nationals will need production from these two going forward, and hopefully they can continue providing it as the team goes on to face the Pittsburgh Pirates next.

Ryan Kekoufski lives near the Nationals’ stadium and has been following the team ever since they moved to Washington D.C. He covers sports for the Yahoo! Contributor Network, and currently resides in Virginia. Follow him on Twitter @RyanKekoufski.

It wasn’t pretty, but the Washington Nationals were able to get it done once again on April 24, beating the San Diego Padres by the score of 3-1 on April 24. Gio Gonzalez picked up his second win of the year, while Henry Rodriguez converted his fifth save of the season.

Gio Gonzalez

Gio Gonzalez looked spectacular once again for the Nationals, going six innings while only giving up two hits to go along with six strikeouts. Gonzalez has yet to give up an earned run in his last three starts, improving his scoreless inning streak to 20 on the year. He also ranks second in the National League in strikeouts at 27 and eighth in WHIP at only 0.85. The Nationals couldn’t have dreamed of a better start to the year for Gio Gonzalez, and it is difficult to say that he won’t keep pitching this well either as the year progresses.

Davey Johnson

Manager Davey Johnson made a somewhat controversial decision to take out Gio after only six innings, but it paid off for him once again when the Nationals came to hit in the seventh inning. Pinch hitter Chad Tracy was able to knock in two runs with a single, scoring Xavier Nady and Wilson Ramos in the seventh inning. The Padres made it close with when Andy Parrino got a base hit and Jayson Werth committed an error to allow Cameron Maybin to score, but the Nationals were able to add an insurance run in ninth with an RBI single from Rick Ankiel and take it from there.

While much has been said about the starting pitching and bullpen play of the Washington Nationals this year, some credit has to go to Davey Johnson as well. Sure, he doesn’t hit or pitch, but he continues to make correct decisions at the end of ball games that leads to the team winning, with the April 24 game being a prime example. I thought Gio could have pitched another inning, but Johnson made the move to pinch hit Chad Tracy and ultimately it paid off. What matters are wins and losses, and Johnson has done a fine job of managing the ballclub to this point in the year.

Ryan Kekoufski lives near the Nationals’ stadium and has been following the team ever since they moved to Washington D.C. He covers sports for the Yahoo! Contributor Network, and currently resides in Virginia.