PHOENIX — Cade Cavalli kept walking forward.

There was no need to look back to track the flight of the ball when the sound of the bat confirmed the damage was done.

After avoiding hard contact for much of Sunday’s 5-1 loss against the Diamondbacks, Cavalli allowed a two-out, two-run homer to Gabriel Moreno in the fifth inning that gave the Diamondbacks control. Moreno jumped on a 1-1 changeup near the middle of the strike zone.

“[Catcher Keibert Ruiz] and I both thought it was a really good pitch. ... [Moreno] hit it; it’s baseball,” Cavalli said. “Other than that, was a lot of weak contact today, that’s out of my control, but I gotta get better and give our ballclub a chance to win and keep it tight there.”

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Sunday’s start was an unusual one for Cavalli. He allowed four runs on seven hits with one walk. Cavalli’s two strikeouts — both on his sweeper — were tied for his fewest this season. His 19% whiff rate was the second lowest of the season.

The Diamondbacks are a patient offensive team, which makes it challenging for a pitcher because they’re tough to put away. Arizona entered the series finale with the lowest swing rate on pitches in the zone and lowest first-pitch swing percentage in the majors.

Cavalli did a good job of getting ahead in the count, and outside of a first-inning homer to All-Star Corbin Carroll, cruised through the third inning. In the fourth, he allowed back-to-back softly hit singles to immediately put him in a jam. Diamondbacks center fielder Ryan Waldschmidt grounded into what was believed to be a double play but was overturned after a video review.

So, instead of conceding a run and getting two outs, Cavalli allowed a run and got only one out. He allowed his third single of the inning before inducing an inning-ending double play.

“We can live with the three soft singles in that fourth inning,” manager Blake Butera said. “He did a really good job of minimizing where that inning could have gone sideways pretty quickly. But also, if he threw the way he did today, yesterday [or] the day before, it’s a different, different conversation. Offensively, we didn’t have it today.”

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Diamondbacks starter and former National Michael Soroka was efficient, throwing seven innings of one-run ball, striking out six and walking two. His lone mistake was in the second on a 1-1 cutter that CJ Abrams drove to right field for his 14th homer of the season, but Soroka otherwise silenced the Nationals’ offense.

“He was in the zone a ton, and he was landing everything,” Butera said. “He had a bunch of pitches; we knew that coming into it. He just landed everything and kept our guys off balance.”

Right-hander Riley Cornelio, who was recalled after Saturday’s game, threw two innings and allowed one run on two hits, with three strikeouts and one walk. He was impressive as he navigated traffic in both innings.

In the sixth, with runners on second and third and no outs, he recorded two groundouts and a popout to end the inning. In the seventh, Cornelio loaded the bases with one out and yielded only one run.

“We just got to get him in the zone a little bit more,” Butera said. “That’s gonna be the message to him. He’s got to throw strikes. These hitters, whether you’re walking guys or even just behind in the count, they’re going to capitalize, no matter how good your stuff is.”

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The Nationals didn’t get the sweep they wanted, but they started their West Coast trip with a series win before flying to San Francisco to play a Giants team that has suddenly created momentum after a rough start.

“It was a great series,” Cavalli said. “We won the series, and we’re going to move on to the next one, go beat the Giants.”

This article has been updated.