Magic disappears at RFK

Once upon a time, RFK Stadium was a safe haven for the Washington Nationals, a home this once-vagabond club couldn’t wait to return to after long road trips.

And for good reason. The Nationals were a major-league-best 29-10 at home through the first half of the season, making rickety old RFK one of the game’s most-imposing venues for opposing teams.

No more. With a 5-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers last night, RFK has officially become the Nationals’ new house of horrors.

Washington has lost nine of its last 12 games at the formerly friendly confines, a stretch that dates back nearly a month. The energy that this ballclub used to draw from raucous, bleacher-bouncing fans has wilted away in the searing D.C. summer.

“The energy is still around and we’re feeding off that,” manager Frank Robinson said. “We’re just not doing the things on the field during the course of a ballgame that we were doing earlier.”

That big, clutch hit that had become a staple around here is nowhere to be found, despite the Nationals’ best efforts to pull off rallies in both the eighth and ninth innings last night.

Shoot, even their rock-solid pitching staff was cursing a ballpark that had for months been a pitcher’s best friend after surrendering four home runs for the first time all year last night to the power-starved Dodgers.

“I was really surprised,” said starter Esteban Loaiza, who surrendered three of the four shots. “The ball hasn’t been flying as well when we play here. But today, it was a home-run [park] for them.”

Those four longballs ultimately doomed Washington (56-50) in its first game back from a dismal 1-5 road trip. The loss dropped the Nationals a season-worst 51/2 games back of the Atlanta Braves in the National League East and was their 11th straight one-run defeat.

Each one of those nip-and-tuck losses has come about in part because of Washington’s inability to do things such as advance a runner from second with no outs, hit a fly ball with a man on third or get down a sacrifice bunt.

That last fundamental has been a particular bone of contention lately, so when Loaiza (6-7) failed to do his job at the plate last night with two on and no one out in the third, the groans of frustration were audible. It was the third time in four games that a Washington pitcher struck out trying to lay down a bunt.

“Three?” Robinson said. “That’s not good.”

At least Brad Wilkerson was right there to pick Loaiza up. Moments after the botched bunt, Wilkerson drilled a pitch from Jeff Weaver (9-8) to deep left-center. It hit the warning track, bounced up against the wall and before the Dodgers could get the ball back in, Wilkerson had slid into third with a two-run triple.

But he never advanced the final 90 feet from there. Jose Vidro hit a shallow fly ball, and Jose Guillen popped up to end the inning.

“Less than two outs, runner on third … we needed to get that run in,” Wilkerson said. “We didn’t do it. And it always seems to come back to get us in the end.”

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