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).

Pittsburgh starter Erik Bedard pitched a decent game, allowing four earned runs on a walk and six hits while striking out seven. The trio of solo home runs, however, were what did him in. Ian Desmond started things off with a shot to left field in the 3rd inning, putting the Nationals up 2-0. In the 6th, Adam LaRoche and Xavier Nady hit back-to-back shots, making it a 4-1 lead.

Nationals left-hander

Gio Gonzalez did the rest, pitching another masterful game for the Nationals and upping his record on the season to 5-1. He struck out 10 batters over the outing, giving him 60 on the season and the NL lead over teammate Stephen Strasburg (who has 56). Over seven innings of work Gonzalez only gave up four hits and two walks, but the base runners did come in bunches and all with Pirates third baseman Josh Harrison at the plate.

In the 5th inning Harrison came to bat with Yamaico Navarro and Rod Barajas on base. Navarro had walked to leadoff the inning and moved to third on Barajas’ single to right. After a Clint Barmes strikeout, Harrison would single to center to score Navarro. Harrison added a pair of RBI later in the game, hitting a two-out, two-run home run to left center in the 7th.

Nady’s home run in the 6th inning was the 100th of his career. His first was back in 2003 as a member of the San Diego Padres, a solo shot off of Damian Moss, then pitching for the San Francisco Giants. His single season career high is 25 during the 2008 season. 36 of his career total came during his tenure with the Pirates, from 2006 until July 2008.

LaRoche, one of Nady’s teammates in Pittsburgh and here again with Washington, added Washington’s final three runs with an 8th inning double that scored Jesus Flores, Bryce Harper, and Ryan Zimmerman. It also marked the 1,000th hit of LaRoche’s career, a milestone he didn’t even realize he had reached until seeing it on the scoreboard in center field. He promptly tipped his cap to the 25,000 plus that were in attendance.

Champ of the Game: LaRoche, who’s offensive resurgence has been vital to the team’s success thus far on the season considering the injuries this team has been forced to deal with. After going 3 for 4 on the game with four RBI he is now leading the team with a .339 batting average, 7 HR, and 29 RBI.

Harrison gets the nod for Pittsburgh, as he accounted for two of the team’s four hits on the day and drove in three of their runs.

Chump of the Game: There’s no easy choice here, especially going off just the box score, but someone has to take the honor. Tyler Moore did go 0 for 3 at the plate, though he at least put the ball in play each at bat.

Next Game: Thursday, May 17, 7:05 PM EST, Nationals Park. James McDonald vs. Jordan Zimmermann.

Stay tuned to District on Deck and like our Facebook page for all of the latest on the Washington Nationals. You can follow Aaron Somers on Twitter @AaronJSomers.

Here are the questions I asked him and of course, his answers.

Q: What’s it going to take for the Pirates fans to get out to the games with regularity?

Tough question. If you look back at some of the attendance numbers, even back as far as the 70s, Pittsburgh hasn’t been a great baseball town. Even after the ballclub wins a world title the fans don’t seem to bust down the gates. To think that it has been 19 years since the city has seen winning baseball, we would say we are shocked everytime we see increased attendance like we’ve been seeing this season. Once school is out, PNC Park is pretty packed, but until an ownership change happens, don’t expect Pittsburgh to throw their 100 percent support behind the club. We can’t say we blame them.

Q: What’s your take on Bryce Harper?

We are huge Harper fans. Having a seven year old helps, but the guy is incredible. We hope he doesn’t change a bit. It’s refreshing to see … except when we think that with just a few more losses a few seasons back he would have been in black and gold.

Q: Who’s the Pirates’ next big prospect that will arrive? When?

April 27, 2012; Atlanta, GA, USA; Pittsburghh Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen (22) celebrates with teammates after scoring a run in the fourth inning against the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-US PRESSWIRE

The next big prospect … hmmm … Starling Marte is drawing some interest from fans. We don’t see him having the impact upon arrival that Andrew McCutchen has had, but Marte has shown us some serious tools. He is a better defender. He runs the bases better. But we can’t see his short term offensive potential having the impact that Cutch has had despite all the hype.

But using the term “big” as a defining adjective, we would have to say Jameson Taillon or Gerrit Cole. Both are over a year away based on their current pace. Bryan Morris isn’t a huge “prospect” per se, coming over in the Jason Bay trade a decade ago, but he has been pitching well in Triple-A. We could see Morris coming on the scene and helping this season.

Q: Perhaps it’s early, but will the Pirates be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline?

We can see them doing both. We could see Joel Hanrahan being sent out. The team should also make a move as they did last season for Derrek Lee and Ryan Ludwick. The unfortunate part of what they did at the deadline last season is they now have nothing to show for it. The Bucs were burned by Lee, who decided not to play this season rather than signing with Pittsburgh (or even Milwaukee, more recently). Having Lee’s bat in the lineup could have had the team a few games over .500 at this point after the stellar pitching numbers the club has put up.

The Pirates don’t have much choice but to buy. Clint Barmes has been the biggest free agent signing in Pirates history and he hasn’t produced. He wasn’t expected to put up big numbers, but the fact that he has regressed so badly has put even more pressure on the bench.

Speaking of the bench, Clint Hurdle and Jeff Banister have received ridiculously low production from those spots. Nate McClouth. Awful. Josh Harrison. Bad. Casey McGehee. Pathetic.

If the team continues to put up punchless offensive numbers, the Pirates could do a serious Black Friday at the MLB trade deadline.

Q: Your prediction for this series.

Unfortunately, I see a split. It pisses me off even thinking about it. Bedard has been great. We hope he can pitch well Wednesday night, but we are pretty sure the offense won’t be able to plate enough runs to give him the W. It’s been that way most of the season. I hope it’s 90 degrees in the asphalt jungle so his back stays loose.

On Thursday, the Bucs will grab a victory behind James McDonald. He has been off the charts. He’s confident in his pitches. He’s an A.J. Burnett-wannabe and has been a hive under A.J.’s armpit all season. It’s McDonald’s coming out party in 2012. The Nats will be lucky to get five hits off the right-hander Thursday night.

Q: Will the Pirates and Nationals have more than one player each in this year’s All Star Game?

Damn. Great question. We definitely think the Nats will – but it could be similar to last season as the team has a couple of representatives named late after the starters peel off due to injuries, divorce hearings, etc.

We can see McCutchen making the club, but it could be very difficult for a Pirates pitcher to get their due. For some reason wins and losses are a big part of the equation as we saw last year with Kevin Correia being named to the team. Ah, screw it … yeah, the Pirates will have two players. If Correia can get the nod then A.J., Hanrahan, or J-Mac will be there.

My thanks go out to Tom for taking the time to answer these questions for us before the upcoming series. Be sure to check out RumBunter for all the Pirates news and info you could possibly need.

Stay tuned to District on Deck and like our Facebook page for all of the latest on the Washington Nationals. You can follow Aaron Somers on Twitter @AaronJSomers.