Slam spoils efforts by Nats' Lopez, Difo

Reynaldo Lopez and Wilmer Difo delivered arguably their best performances of the season Wednesday, but Double-A Harrisburg still fell short of a victory.

Lopez, the Nationals' fifth-ranked prospect, struck out a career-high 13 while allowing two runs on five hits and a walk over seven innings and No. 6 Difo belted his first two home runs of the season in the Senators' 7-6 loss to the Hartford Yard Goats at FNB Field.

Although he struck out the side on 14 pitches in the second inning, Lopez ran into early trouble. He gave up both runs before the end of the third.

A mound visit seemed to do the trick for the native of the Dominican Republic as he struck out third-ranked Rockies prospect Ryan McMahon to end the frame. He went on to retire 12 of the final 14 batters he faced.

Lopez finished his final inning by striking out the side after Correlle Prime reached on a throwing error by third baseman Adrian Sanchez. When he fanned Michael Benjamin looking, the 22-year-old topped his previous career-high mark of a dozen strikeouts, set May 29 against Akron.

When Hartford hitters made contact with Lopez's pitches, they didn't lift them in the air. The right-hander induced six ground-ball outs and none via fly balls. Lopez exited after throwing 72 of 101 pitches for strikes in his longest outing of the season.

Difo provided run support in the early going as he went yard in his first two at-bats. Facing Colorado's No. 7 prospect Kyle Freeland in the first, the 24-year-old shortstop sent a 2-2 offering over wall in left-center field to put the Senators on the board. In the third, Difo went to the same spot on a 1-0 pitch by the 2014 first-rounder.

After Kevin Keyes and No. 30 Nationals prospect Chris Bostick lofted back-to-back long balls in the fifth, Difo singled to left in the sixth to cap his three-hit night.

The Senators took a four-run cushion into the eighth with Nationals' No. 28 prospect Nick Lee on in relief, but the 25-year-old southpaw hit sixth-ranked Rockies prospect Raimel Tapia with his first pitch before walking the next two batters to load the bases.

John Simms was summoned out of the bullpen and induced a double play off the bat of McMahon that brought home a run. But the right-hander walked his next two batters on 10 pitches before surrendering a grand slam to catcher Jackson Williams that gave Hartford the lead.

Carlos Hernandez (4-4) was credited with the win for working a scoreless seventh and Matt Carasiti struck out two over 1 1/3 innings to run his Eastern League-leading save total to 17.