Six-run fourth inning dooms Michael Lorenzen, Phillies in 8-7 loss to Nationals

WASHINGTON — Last week, when Michael Lorenzen chucked the 14th no-hitter in Phillies history, he threw more pitches (124) than anyone in a major league game since June of last season.

The question, then, as he took the mound again: Is there a toll?

Lorenzen insisted his arm felt good all week, up to and including Friday night, but said his body was “out of sync.” And after twirling the game of his life nine nights earlier in Philadelphia, he couldn’t survive a six-run fourth inning in an 8-7 loss to the Nationals, the very team that he had just flummoxed.

“I was having to think way too much about what my body was doing to make certain pitches,” Lorenzen said after his shortest start (3⅓ innings) in more than a year. “That’s not where you really want to be during a game, thinking about mechanics and your delivery to try to throw strikes.”

The Phillies lost for the fourth time in five games because of more than merely Lorenzen. Rookie center fielder Johan Rojas made an exceedingly rare error to begin the Nationals’ fourth-inning rally. Trea Turner struck out with the bases loaded in the seventh. The Phillies scored once in five innings against the Nationals’ bullpen.

But all eyes were on Lorenzen’s bid to join Johnny Vander Meer (Google it, kids) in the back-to-back no-hitter club — or at least to keep rolling along amid a six-start stretch in which he allowed a total of five runs.

Lorenzen got two extra days of rest after his heavy lift for history courtesy of a pair of scheduled off-days this week. He said he felt “10% more sore” the day after the no-hitter but better each day thereafter.

And then he took the mound.

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Lorenzen’s velocity, typically an indicator of fatigue, was slightly down from his season averages. But it was his command, especially of his slider and signature changeup, that did him in. He hung a changeup to C.J. Abrams for a backbreaking three-run homer in the big fourth inning.

“Wasn’t in sync at all,” Lorenzen said. “Just having to think about the pitches that I’m trying to make way too much. I didn’t think I had good anything today.”

Lorenzen gave up a hit to the second batter of the game on what should’ve been charged an error to Turner at shortstop. The Nationals scored a run in the second inning on back-to-back clean hits, a lined double by Stone Garrett and Jake Alu’s single.

But the Phillies staked Lorenzen to a big lead with six two-out runs in the fourth inning. And when he got Keibert Ruiz to pop out and Dominic Smith to hit a fly ball to center field in the fourth inning, it seemed like maybe he was settling in.

Clank.

Rojas covers center field like a tarp and has been even better than his reputation since he arrived in the majors last month. But he lost concentration for a split second and dropped Smith’s routine fly.

“Something you probably won’t see again, Rojas dropping a fly ball,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He broke in and then he recovered well. He was underneath it. It just popped out of his glove.”

Said Kyle Schwarber, who hit his 31st and 32nd homers: “Errors are going to happen. The biggest thing is that you learn from it and you move on. It wasn’t like it was a mental error or anything like that. Things happen in this game that can kick you right in the you-know-what.”

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Besides, if the next five batters hadn’t reached base (four hits, one walk), it wouldn’t have been so costly. But Lorenzen gave up back-to-back singles and a walk. Blake Rutherford, who didn’t have an RBI in 24 career major league at-bats, followed with a two-run single.

Jeff Hoffman was ready in the bullpen, but Thomson stuck with Lorenzen because he’d had success against Abrams. Instead, the Nationals’ leadoff man teed off on a changeup, launching it into the right-field bullpen.

And poof, Lorenzen was gone, his shortest start since July 1 of last season with the Angels.

So, was there a toll from the no-hitter?

“I think he looked kind of normal,” Thomson said. “The velocity was good. I don’t think he had the same changeup he had the last time.”

Maybe it was as simple as this: “I didn’t do my job today,” Lorenzen said.

Jake Cave went 3-for-4, including an RBI double in the Phillies’ big inning, and accentuated a potentially difficult roster decision.

The Phillies likely will option utilityman Weston Wilson to triple A once Brandon Marsh comes back from a bruised left knee, maybe as soon as Saturday. But what happens when outfielder Cristian Pache (elbow) returns from the injured list later this month?

Cave has minor league options, which could put his spot in peril. But the outfielder/first baseman also is 11-for-26 with two homers in his last nine games. If he has cemented a spot on the bench, seldom-used infielder Rodolfo Castro could be the odd man out.

Regardless, Cave is producing at the plate. He doubled in the third inning against Nationals starter Joan Adon. And after J.T. Realmuto drove in two runs with a two-out double in the fourth, Cave lined a double inside the right-field line to extend the lead to 3-1 and scored on Rojas’ RBI single.

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Bryce Harper was saved by the rulebook in the second inning.

Harper airmailed a throw to third base that would have brought in a Nationals run. But home plate umpire Jim Wolf correctly called the play dead, according to Rule 6.03(a)(1), because Vargas’ foot was outside the batter’s box when he made contact.