Nationals get better start, still finish poorly

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Though Jerome Williams became the first Washington Nationals starting pitcher to work past the fifth inning this season, he was outdone by the Arizona Diamondbacks starter who went five.

Right-hander Micah Owings, making his major league debut, and two relievers combined on a four-hitter to beat the Nationals 7-1 in front of 19,234 on a chilly night at RFK Stadium. Owings allowed one hit in five shutout innings with three walks and six strikeouts.

Nationals center fielder Ryan Church foiled Arizona's shutout bid with his second home run of the season with two outs in the ninth inning off reliever Juan Cruz.

"The offense wasn't there for us," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "We couldn't put anything together. We couldn't do anything offensively; you've got to give credit to their kid."

The Nationals are now 1-4 on their season-opening homestand under first-year manager Manny Acta and have lost the first two of this four-game series. There wasn't much the Nationals could muster after Owings, Arizona's minor league pitcher of the year last season after compiling a 16-2 record with a 3.33 ERA in 27 starts between Class AA Tennessee and Class AAA Tucson, struck out four of the first six batters he faced.

The 24-year-old retired eight of the first nine batters and gave up only a line-drive single to Felipe Lopez in the third inning.

Williams was up to the challenge of matching Owings until the fourth inning, when the defense behind him began to unravel. The 25-year-old retired the first 10 batters he faced.

Alberto Callaspo broke up Williams' no-hitter with a one-out double in the fourth when he hit a grounder just inside the third-base bag that Ryan Zimmerman was unable to snag. With two outs and Callaspo on third, Chad Tracy smacked a long fly ball to right field. Nationals right fielder Austin Kearns ran back to the fence but mistimed his jump.

Tracy's ball hit off the middle of the fence when Kearns tried to make a short-arm catch. The ball caromed off the fence and rolled back into right-center field. Callaspo scored on the play, and Tracy ended up with a triple to give Arizona a 1-0 lead.

"I knew it was going to be close; I peeked back to see where the wall was, so I knew it was going to be right up there against it," Kearns said. "So I just tried to go up. I think I should have caught it, but I didn't. I definitely thought it was a ball I should have caught."