Neris has rare misstep against Nats

PHILADELPHIA — Jeremy Hellickson was cruising. He’d flown through seven innings with a solo home run the only damage. He’d struck out the side the inning prior.

But Hector Neris, with his mid-90s heater and bottom-dropping splitfinger, was too tempting an option for Pete Mackanin. The Phillies skipper lifted Hellickson for a pinch-hitter in the bottom half of the seventh. By the end of the next half inning, the Nationals had taken a lead they would not lose, beating the Phillies 4-3 on Monday.

Mackanin afterward still called Neris among the best in the game. And for his first 26 appearances, he had been. But he wasn’t Monday. Neris faced seven batters in the eighth inning. He retired only two of them, gave up two hits and walked three more. Three Nationals runs had scored by the time Jeanmar Gomez had recorded the final out of the inning.

“I can’t remember the last time a team got three runs off of Neris,” …

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