He did his part.

The lineup did not.

The Phillies mustered just one hit in a 1-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, wasting a fine effort from Hamels, who allowed one run, five hits and two walks in eight innings. He struck out six.

"I think if I can keep doing that, I definitely think our team will win a lot of ball games this year," Hamels said. "Giving up one run, we're going to win the game 99 percent of the time."

It marked the first time the Phillies had been one-hit since July 2, 2003, in a 1-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs.

The Phils never had a runner reach second base, a rarity for a team that led the National League in scoring the last two seasons.

"That's the only thing that frustrates me about tonight," shortstop Jimmy Rollins said. "You know you're going to win some, you know you're to going to lose some. But to get a performance like that from Cole where he only gives up one run and you can't find a way to score, it's definitely a wasted effort."

Hamels made one bad pitch: a 1-2 fastball to Ryan Zimmerman in the top of the sixth inning.

Hamels wanted to get the ball up in the strike zone. He did not get it up enough. Zimmerman hit the pitch into the second row of seats just inside the right-field foul pole to score the only run.

"I was trying to go away and he was chasing pitches up, so I was trying to go up," Hamels said. "It was out of the strike zone, but with the type of power he has, he's capable of hitting them over the fence."

Nationals righthander Tim Redding allowed just one hit in seven-plus innings. He allowed a single to Pedro Feliz in the second and retired the next 14 batters he faced until Ryan Howard walked in the seventh.

"I couldn't believe I looked up and we had one [hit] in the eighth inning," rightfielder Geoff Jenkins said.

It was dollar-dog night, and fans at the sold-out park - presumably not fervent Nationals fans fired up about their city's first 3-0 start since 1951 - threw hot dogs, drinks and bottles onto the field afterward.

Debris nearly struck reliever Ryan Madson as he entered the dugout.

A Phillies win today in the series finale could soothe some local nerves.

"It's definitely frustrating," centerfielder Shane Victorino said. "I don't know if it's just the jinx that we have here in the city or it's all on our team. We're 0-2. We might roll off eight in a row and be 8-2."

They've got to get to 1-2 first.

See more photos from the game at http://go.philly.com/photos.

Find frequent updates from Todd Zolecki on his blog at http://go.philly.com/phillies.