WASHINGTON _ The tying run had barely crossed home plate Saturday night before Pete Mackanin sprung from the dugout steps to remove his starting pitcher. It was the fifth inning of a 6-4 Phillies loss to first-place Washington, and rookie Nick Pivetta could not survive it.
The Phillies bullpen, again, became vulnerable. So when Edubray Ramos fired a 95-mph meatball to Bryce Harper, the superstar who signed a $21 million contract for next season earlier in the day, did not miss it.
He victimized the Phillies with a mammoth, game-winning homer for the second time this season.
Ramos was the fifth reliever used Saturday night by Mackanin. The first four, Luis Garcia, Joely Rodriguez, Pat Neshek and Joaquin Benoit, navigated the middle innings and kept it tied for Ramos in the ninth. The Venezuelan right-hander surrendered a leadoff single but retired the next two Washington batters.
Harper swung at a high 96-mph heater and fouled it. The next fastball was poorly located, much like the one Benoit threw Harper last month to end a game at Nationals Park.
The pitching is an issue. A Phillies starter failed to pitch six innings for the 19th time in 33 games. That, according to Baseball-Reference, marks the fewest six-inning starts by a Phillies team in their first 33 games since at least 1913. The rotation has not delivered. The bullpen, then, is vulnerable.
Phillies starters have a 4.76 ERA this season. They owned the seventh-highest rotation ERA in baseball before Saturday's game. And, while their pitchers' inability to last longer in games is frustrating, they are not alone.
Four National League teams averaged fewer innings per start than the Phillies before Saturday's games: Chicago, Milwaukee, Miami and Cincinnati. Their 91 pitches per start is right at the league average.
But the Phillies aim to be better than average in their rotation, a process that has taken a detour in 2017.
Pivetta walked one batter in his first 11 innings in the majors. He walked four Nationals in 42/3 innings Saturday. His command against the organization that drafted him and traded him for Jonathan Papelbon was nonexistent; Pivetta threw 50 strikes and 42 balls. Washington feasted on him during the third time through the batting order.
He allowed a double to Michael A. Taylor, but Taylor stood on third with two outs in the fifth inning. Pivetta needed just one more. Trea Turner mashed a two-run homer to center. Jayson Werth and Harper walked. Then Ryan Zimmerman lashed a two-run double to right.
Mackanin came to the mound for the ball.
Pivetta will start again; his next turn is Thursday at Texas, and Aaron Nola will not be available to pitch until next weekend in Pittsburgh. The Phillies are high on Pivetta, but his development is incomplete. The 24-year-old right-hander has time.
"He's got major league stuff," Mackanin said before the game.
The Phillies, at least, forced the other team's starter to depart before he could throw five innings. They solved Tanner Roark, who had mastered them in his last seven starts since the beginning of last season. Roark had pitched to a 0.96 ERA in 47 innings against the Phillies.
But he required 110 pitches Saturday for 14 outs. The Phillies were patient. Cesar Hernandez and Tommy Joseph walked in the fourth inning and each scored on singles by Michael Saunders and Cameron Rupp.
Roark was gone before the fifth concluded, but the Phillies were done scoring.
