Nats’ trip ends with another zero

“They had to make three perfect plays, and they made them,” Milledge said. “They got me. It was good on their part. I thought it was a great decision on my part, and I went for it.”

Making matters more frustrating, Nieves followed with a double that would have scored Milledge had he still been on base.

Acta didn’t fault his young outfielder for taking a chance on the play.

“He’s an aggressive guy,” the manager said. “We’d rather see him do that kind of stuff than just play station to station. It just backfired on us. We’re trying to manufacture some runs. These kids, sometimes they try to do more.”

There was nothing more for the Nationals to do on this day. Kershaw, a promising rookie hurler, earned his first career win with six shutout innings. A trio of Los Angeles relievers then finished things off, handing Bergmann yet another disappointing loss in the process.

Bergmann (1-8) again did enough to earn a win - six innings of two-run ball - but he was done in by his only two mistakes of the day - a solo homer by James Loney in the second and an RBI single by Russell Martin in the fifth.

Sunday marked the sixth time Bergmann has allowed two earned runs or fewer in his last seven starts. His record during that time is 0-4.

“It sucks, but the team’s not winning,” he said. “I’m not going to be a selfish guy and say I wish I could be winning more than this guy. Everybody deserves to win. The team deserves to win.”