WASHINGTON -- By almost every measure, the Brewers should have beaten the Nationals on Friday night. They got the longer and more efficient pitching performance of the two clubs from Adrian Houser. They won the hits battle by six and allowed just eight Washington batters to reach base. They came in winners of six of their last eight games, ready to claw their way up the standings in the National League Central and Wild Card races.

But they didn’t win. That Nationals did, handing Milwaukee a 2-1 loss at Nationals Park. And the defeat came at a tune that is becoming all too familiar for Milwaukee.

“It’s the same story tonight,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said of his club, which went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position. “We just didn’t get a [needed] hit with men in scoring position. We pitched really good. We just need more runs.

“Bottom line.”

• Box score

The Brewers (63-59) are two games back in the NL Central of the Cardinals, against whom they begin a three-game road series on Monday, and a game back of the Cubs and Phillies for the second NL Wild Card spot. Meanwhile, Washington added to its buffer atop the Wild Card standings, taking a 2 1/2-game lead thanks to Anthony Rendon delivering what the Brewers could not: timely hitting.

Crew can’t cash in

Milwaukee entered Friday with the third lowest batting average with runners in scoring position in the Majors and riding a skid of 7-for-43 in such situations over the past four games. There were plenty of opportunities to fix that trend on Friday.

Most crushing is that the two hits the Brewers did get with a runner in scoring position didn’t even score a run; both advanced a runner from second base to third. Milwaukee's only run came on a solo home run from Orlando Arcia in the third.

The Brewers stranded 13 in the game, nine of which came in a span of four consecutive innings, starting in the third when Arcia hit his long ball. Each time, Nationals starter Patrick Corbin limited the damage, stranding the bases loaded in the third, runners at second and third in both the fourth and fifth and men on first and second base in the sixth.

“Corbin’s slider befuddled a bunch of our guys,” Counsell said of the southpaw's pitch, which induced 19 swinging strikes. “We had the right guys up in the third inning with a chance to get some space in the game, and he made some good pitches. We have to somehow find a way to get some more runs on the board there.”

“We had plenty of opportunities,” added rookie second baseman Keston Hiura, who drew a leadoff walk in the ninth against Nationals closer Sean Doolittle but was stranded at second base. “All of us need to focus a little bit more and be able to get the job done … to put the ball in play and make them make a play.”

How does that happen? Counsell has no easy answer. But if he had to find one silver lining in it all, it’s that at least his team is setting themselves up for those positions in the first place.

“It's not going to change,” Counsell said. “The hits are going to have to come, and that’s how you are going to score runs. We keep believing they are going to come, and I still think it’s good offense getting guys on base.”

Houser’s start for naught

The only glaring positive for Counsell was the performance his starter turned in. Houser followed up his electric 10-strikeout start last time out with seven one-run innings alongside a more modest four punchouts, allowing two hits and two walks while hitting two batters with pitches. And this time, he didn’t get sick on the mound.

Houser first ran into trouble once in the second, when he needed 21 pitches to escape a two-on, two-out situation after walking a pair of batters ahead of Corbin.

“That was more the inning, to me, that gave him some trouble that probably hurt him going into the third,” Counsell said, referring Anthony Rendon’s third-inning RBI double, the first of two for the Nationals’ third baseman in the game.

But after allowing a one-out single in the fourth, Houser retired the next 11 Nationals he faced to end his night on a high note and further fortify his standing in a Brewers rotation that has been ravaged by injuries.

“I felt really [good] with the things we’ve been working on lately,” Houser said. “Been dialed in on a lot of stuff and able to get down the mound and started moving better, and it helped out a lot.”

“I thought he almost got another gear, and he really took it to them,” Counsell said. “We’ve had some guys that come in and really solidified our starting pitching, and Adrian’s right at the head of that list. We’re going to need these guys moving forward. It’s a really positive sign what we’re getting from our starters right now.”

Houser even notched the first hit of his big league career, but he ended up one of the 13 Brewers left on base -- “I’ve been searching for that one for a while,” he said of his double.

“He’s been doing it the whole year and [has been] a force on the mound facing a lot of quality hitters,” Hiura said. “Kind of a bummer we weren’t able to get behind him for that.”

Reason to worry about Yelich?

According to both his track record and Counsell, no. True, Yelich is 1-for-15 in three starts since returning from the back ailment. But he feels good, according to Counsell, and can turn a corner at any moment.

Even though Yelich was 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position on Friday, he was far from the only one who struggled there. He was 0-for-5 with three strikeouts overall.

“Anytime Christian is not getting hits you feel like he’s going to do some serious damage for you here,” Counsell said. “It’s three games back, he’ll get it going.”