Harper's blast sinks Phillies in ninth as Nationals win, 6-4

WASHINGTON - The plan, Edubray Ramos said, was to attack Bryce Harper with fastballs down and away. He is one of the game's best hitters, and the Nationals superstar signed a record-setting $21 million contract for next season earlier Saturday. Then he came to the plate in the ninth inning with a chance yet again to crush the Phillies with one swing.

Ramos fired a 95-mph meatball over the plate. He missed the target set by catcher Cameron Rupp. Harper swung hard. He flicked his pink bat when the ball cleared the center field wall. Ramos, incredulous, did not budge from the mound.

It happened again in a 6-4 Phillies loss. A Phillies starter could not pitch deep into the game. The bullpen was vulnerable. Harper struck.

"The plan was to locate the fastball down and away," Ramos said through a team interpreter. "That's what I tried. But it didn't happen."

The Phillies, at this point, are sick of Washington. They have played the Nationals 10 times in the first 33 games of the season. A doubleheader awaits Sunday. They will not meet again until September.

Harper, though, will still haunt them.

"He's out there to win the game, and he's got that kind of a bat," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "That's what it takes to win a lot of these games. He was looking for a good heater out over the plate that he could hit."

There was nothing else the manager could say. He did not order his reliever to throw Harper a hittable fastball. Ramos was the fifth reliever used Saturday night by Mackanin as he attempted to clean Nick Pivetta's mess. 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.

Mackanin held Hector Neris from the game, as most managers do in a tie game on the road, for a save situation.

Harper swung at a high 96-mph heater from Ramos and fouled it for strike one. The next fastball was poorly located, much like the one Benoit threw Harper last month to end a game at Nationals Park.

Had Mackanin chose not to attack Harper this time, Ryan Zimmerman and Daniel Murphy loomed. There was no good solution.

"I didn't even think of it," Mackanin said. "I'm not putting the winning run on second base for Zimmerman."

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 exposed.

Phillies starters have a 4.76 ERA this season. They owned the seventh-highest rotation ERA in baseball before Saturday's game.

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.

"I don't think the walks were really a big problem," Pivetta said. The rookie said he had good command of his slider and curveball.

Mackanin saw it differently.

"He didn't have command of any of his secondary pitches," Mackanin said. "But he's learning. It's a good learning experience for him. He understands that. You can't just keep pounding fastballs at guys. If you don't get your secondary stuff over and throw quality strikes with it, teams like this are really going to jump all over you."

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 Phillies will recall righthander Ben Lively to serve as their 26th man for Sunday's doubleheader. Lively spent a few days with the Phillies last month but did not appear in a game. He could be needed Sunday after the bullpen was extensively used. . . . The doubleheader will be the Phillies' first on the road since September 2011.

mgelb@philly.com

@MattGelb