Drew Storen News

Chad Tracy's home run in the top of the ninth had the visitor's dugout in Citizens Bank Park rocking, but a half-inning late heads were hung low as the Philadelphia Phillies won it on a walk-off single by Domonic Brown.

Eighteen minutes after the Washington Nationals had pounded on the dugout railing, raised their fists in the air and practically danced Chad Tracy into the dugout in celebration, they walked off the same field with their heads bowed.

Chad Tracy's home run in the top of the ninth tied it at 4-4, but the Philadelphia Phillies rallied to beat the Washington Nationals 5-4 on Domonic Brown's walk-off single in the bottom of the inning off Nats' left-hander Fernando Abad.

If the Washington Nationals truly wanted to turn their season around, their doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins was crucial for starting the process.

Corey Kluber pitched eight shutout innings and the Cleveland Indians spoiled Stephen Strasburg's return with a 2-0 win over the Washington Nationals on Sunday.

Anthony Rendon hit his first major league home run following Nick Swisher's ninth-inning error to propel the Washington Nationals to a 7-6 win over Cleveland on Saturday night.

It didn't work. Over the last few weeks, the Nationals have overhauled their bullpen, in large part to address that weakness.

Miguel Cabrera's contract expires in 2015. The Tigers will have about 70 MM committed to Justin Verlander , Prince Fielder , and Anibal Sanchez .

The process of piecing this Washington Nationals season back together may have begun in earnest here Thursday afternoon.

The Washington Nationals swapped flamethrowing but erratic right-hander Henry Rodriguez for Ian Dickson, a 22-year-old Single-A pitcher from the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night, thus ending Rodriguez's two-plus-year tenure with the team.

Jhoulys Chacin won for the first time since April, Tyler Colvin homered twice and drove in four runs, and the Colorado Rockies beat the Washington Nationals 8-3 on Tuesday night.

In their starting rotation alone, Stephen Strasburg , Gio Gonzalez and Dan Haren have six All-Star appearances between them, with Gonzalez being the 2012 NL win leader and a Cy Young Award nominee.

Video: The Post Sports Live crew debates whether it's better for the team if injured Nationals play through the pain.

Rouhier told Kilgore . "We've had to move away from the amount of Nats conversation we'd like to have.

The day began with manager Davey Johnson calling a team meeting in which he appealed for more aggression at the plate and mistook his starting pitcher's heat pad for a neck brace.

Ian Desmond doubled home the go-ahead run in the seventh inning and the Washington Nationals made manager Davey Johnson's "fun day" even better Sunday with a 5-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins to complete a sweep of a day-night doubleheader.

It was just last season that the Nationals were winners of 98 games and Jamie Moyer felt relatively spry.

The Washington Nationals have had a recent trend of wasting strong starts by left hander Gio Gonzalez .

Not necessarily, of course, but it did for Mark Appel, who spurned the Pirates a year ago and wound up becoming the number one pick in 2013.

Special to Palo Alto Online Sports Just a few days after making his dreamy debut in Major League Baseball with the Washington Nationals, former Stanford pitcher Erik Davis was roughly returned to reality.