The Nationals lost both members of their battery, Ross Detwiler and Wilson Ramos, to injuries before the game was halfway finished and couldn’t get anything going against the Dodgers and Zack Greinke, who did enough to pick up a 3-1 win over Washington to earn bragging rights in the three-game series at Dodger Stadium.

While much of the national media attention will be on Greinke (2-0), making his return from a broken collarbone suffered in an on-field brawl in April, Nationals fans will be more concerned with the health of the two newest members of Washington’s battle-bruised battalion.

Detwiler (2-4) went down first. The lefty had given up single runs to the Dodgers in each of the first two innings, and each came with two outs. Adrian Gonzalez drove in the first run of the game in the first inning with a soft single to center that plated Matt Kemp from second base. One inning later, Detwiler watched as Greinke poked a single to right with Andre Ethier on third, doubling the L.A. advantage.

Ross Detwiler left Wednesday’s game with back spasms. (Image: Kirby Lee, USA Today)

The problem came in the third, as Detwiler scampered over to cover first on a potential 3-6-1 double play. Ian Desmond‘s throw was slightly behind Detwiler, who stretched to reach it but appeared to tweak something. He stayed in the game to finish the inning, but gave way to Craig Stammen in the fourth inning. After the game, Detwiler revealed he had suffered back spasms and was hopeful, although not 100 percent confident, that he would be able to make his next start.

Ramos’s condition appears to be more severe. While running to first on his second hit of the game, the catcher pulled up lame, leaving the game immediately and being replaced by Kurt Suzuki. Ramos has already spent time on the disabled list this season with hamstring issues, and Nats manager Davey Johnson said postgame that the hamstring struck again, likely meaning a return trip to the DL for Ramos and a call-up for Jhonatan Solano.

As for the rest of the game, it was not the breakout offensive affair Nationals fans have been hoping for. In fact, it was pretty much the opposite.

Still missing Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper, the lineup once again scuffled, with the exception of Adam LaRoche, who accounted for the Nationals’ only run with a solo homer to center in the fourth inning that extended his hitting streak to 12 games. The Nationals entered the day’s games ahead of only Miami in team OPS, and finished the three games in L.A. with a paltry .125 batting average (3-for-24) with runners in scoring position.

The best chance for the Nats to bust out came in the eighth against Kenley Jansen. Steve Lombardozzi singled to lead off the inning and was promptly replaced by pinch-runner Eury Perez. Ryan Zimmerman then followed with a single to left that advanced Perez to third with no outs. But the Nationals could not capitalize, as Adam LaRoche popped out to shallow left and Ian Desmond went down swinging. With two outs, Suzuki finally hit the fly ball Washington needed, but it came too late. Brandon League worked around a leadoff single in the ninth to record his ninth save of the season for the Dodgers, retiring a pinch-hitting Harper along the way.

The Nationals will look to welcome Harper back to the lineup on Thursday night at 10:10 PM Eastern in San Diego, while Werth is scheduled to be back in time for Saturday’s game. The opener of a four-game set at Petco Park sees Washington’s Stephen Strasburg (1-5, 3.10 ERA) pitching in his hometown for the first time as a pro. He will square off with the Padres’ Edinson Volquez (3-3, 5.15).

Desmond had three hits, scored three times and hit a tie-breaking homer in the fourth inning to lead the Nationals to a 7-3 win over the Chicago Cubs in the opener of a three-game series at Nationals Park.

The way the rest of the lineup compensated for the lack of two-thirds of the starting outfield made Desmond a little nostalgic.

“Last year, we were missing guys throughout the whole season, pretty much,” Desmond said to the Associated Press after the game, referring, of course, to Washington’s 98-win division title season in 2012. “We just found a way.”

On Friday, the way included Desmond’s contributions, along with RBI doubles by Danny Espinosa and Kurt Suzuki, complemented by nice pitching by both Ross Detwiler and Craig Stammen.

Ian Desmond finished a triple shy of the cycle against the Cubs on Friday night.(Image: Brad Mills, USA Today)

Suzuki was the first to start the party, crashing a two-run double off the fence in right-center in the second inning, turning an early 1-0 Cubs lead into a 2-1 Nationals advantage. Suzuki also made the highlight reel with his glove in the next half-inning. After back-to-back double by Jeff Samardzija and Starlin Castro knotted the game at 2-2, a single by Anthony Rizzo looked to give the Cubs the lead. But Roger Bernadina, in right field thanks to the aforementioned injuries, let loose a good throw home. Suzuki dove back to just nab the sliding Castro at the plate, denying Chicago the go-ahead run.

It stayed 2-2 until the fourth, when Desmond broke the tie with his fifth homer of the year, and one inning later it was Desmond again, this time with a double off Samardzija that scored Ryan Zimmerman for a 5-2 Nationals lead. When Danny Espinosa followed with a two-run double of his own, it appeared to be all Detwiler would need.

Plagued by a lack of run support, Detwiler came into the game with just one win to his name, but the Nationals outburst on Friday was more than enough to support the lefty, who somehow battled through surrendering six doubles in 6.2 innings while only giving up two runs. Craig Stammen came in to relieve Detwiler in the seventh and went the rest of the way, picking up some work for himself while simultaneously giving his bullpen mates a much appreciated night off.

Speaking of nights off, there were divergent diagnoses for the Nationals missing outfielders. Werth, who hasn’t played since May 2, appears headed for the disabled list to rest a slight strain in his hamstring. The Nationals are expected to call up outfielder Eury Perez from Syracuse to fill the roster spot, which shouldn’t be open for long, as Werth should be back as soon as he is eligible to come off.

Harper, meanwhile, had been playing the last couple of games with an ingrown toenail that eventually became infected and needed a procedure to rectify — if you’re interested, check Harper’s Twitter feed for a splendid color photo of the carnage. The 20-year-old should be back in the lineup on Saturday however, when the Nationals will send Stephen Strasburg (1-4, 3.45 ERA) to the hill in search of his first win since Opening Day. Opposing him will be Edwin Jackson (0-5, 6.39) for the Cubs, returning to Nats Park after spending 2012 with Washington.

After a stint on the disabled list with a hamstring issue, Zimmerman returned to the cleanup spot in the Washington Nationals lineup Friday night, but A.J. Burnett and the Pittsburgh Pirates ruined the party, shutting down the Nationals offense in a 3-1 Pirates victory at PNC Park.

Zimmerman, who played just one rehab game to get back into game shape, could be excused for perhaps thinking one or two more A-ball outings might have been beneficial. The third baseman, who has now made a DL trip in each of the past three Aprils, never got comfortable against Burnett and the Pirates, striking out in all four plate appearances on a night the Nationals fanned 14 times.

Burnett (3-2) racked up nine of the punchouts, moving to the head of the class in the National League with 57 Ks. The veteran scattered five hits and allowed Washington’s only run before turning it over to the bullpen, where Mark Melancon and Jason Grilli sent the Nationals home on the wrong side of the scoreboard and dropped the club back down to the .500 mark at 15-15 on the season.

Ross Detwiler, as has become the norm this season, wasn’t awful for Washington, but picked the wrong day to try and match up with Burnett. Unfortunately for Detwiler (1-3), the Pirates were able to convert the two mistake pitched the left-hander made into long balls, accounting for all of Pittsburgh’s scoring.

Adam LaRoche showed signs of shaking off his April blues, going 2-for-3 on Friday, but the Nats fell to Pittsburgh 3-1 in the series opener. (Image: Daniel Shirey, USA Today)

The first probably shouldn’t have come as any surprise to anyone who has seen a Pirates-Nationals game over the past couple of years. With two outs in the first inning, Pirates centerfielder Andrew McCutchen blasted a 2-1 pitch over the wall in left, giving Pittsburgh and 1-0 lead and extending his mastery of Washington pitching. For his career, McCutchen has blistered the Nationals for a .455 batting average (41-for-90) with 11 home runs and 22 RBIs. You might as well nickname him “Ted Lerner,” since he owns the Nationals.

After Danny Espinosa singled in the fourth inning to plate Adam LaRoche and tie the game — just Espinosa’s second hit in his last 23 at-bats — Detwiler’s second mistake, in the bottom of the fifth inning, turned out to be the most costly. With Starling Marte on second base, and only because LaRoche couldn’t get the ball out of his glove when the Nats had Marte picked off and trying to advance, Detwiler turned and watched as Pirates rookie Jordy Mercer, just recalled to the big leagues on Friday, blasted a two-run homer to left to break the tie and give Pittsburgh a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

“Just two pitches,” Detwiler said to Mark Zuckerman of CSN. “It was kind of weird, they were the same exact pitch. I tried to throw a fastball away, I cut it a little bit, it goes right over the middle of the plate and they’re paid to hit them.”

The Nats barely threatened after that, with any minor uprising quelled quickly by the Pirates pitchers. An error and a single in the top of the eighth inning saw Nationals on first and third, but Melancon punched out Bryce Harper to end the inning, and Grilli struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth to pick up his 12th save of the season.

Washington, without Jayson Werth for the series as he rests his sore hamstring, will try to right the ship Saturday afternoon at 4:05 PM, with Stephen Strasburg (1-4, 3.13 ERA) looking to bounce back from forearm tightness in his last start against Pittsburgh left-hander Jeff Locke (3-1, 2.83).