Out after a swing and miss

FOXBOROUGH — Michael Parkhurst departed from Gillette Stadium with a pair of crutches after hyperextending his right knee in a 3-0 loss to D.C. United yesterday. But Parkhurst was carrying the crutches in his right hand, not using them for support.

‘‘I’ll use them, just to make sure I don’t overcompensate,’’ Parkhurst said.

Parkhurst, the Revolution’s starting central defender, whiffed on a ball in the 36th minute, took a few steps, then fell in the penalty area.

‘‘I went to clear and the ball took a weird bounce,’’ Parkhurst said. ‘‘I swung and missed. My leg expected contact and I hyperextended it. I’ve missed before and it hurts a little. This time I tried to straighten it but it was too painful.’’

The Revolution went to a Jay Heaps-James Riley-Avery John back line for the remainder of the match and likely will start with that combination against the Harrisburg City Islanders in a US Open Cup quarterfinal Wednesday. ‘‘We have a great opportunity to advance,’’ coach Steve Nicol said of the Open Cup match. ‘‘We’ll get ourselves ready mentally and see who feels good and who feels bad. We want to win the game.’’

One that got away

Goalkeeper Matt Reis appeared to have stopped the shot that led to the first goal, but he lost control as Josh Gros ran in to score in the 22d minute.

‘‘I got the ball but not cleanly,’’ Reis said. ‘‘And Gros nicked in and scored. It was uncharacteristic of us, top to bottom. We were out of sorts. We’ve got to look at ourselves, then leave this one behind and move on.’’

Over in a snap

The Revolution had unbeaten streaks of six games overall and five matches at home snapped. This was the Revolution’s worst home defeat since a 4-1 loss to the Miami Fusion Aug. 11, 2001 at Foxboro Stadium. Jay Heaps (still with the Revolution), Rusty Pierce (Columbus), and Andy Williams (Real Salt Lake) suited up for New England during that game, as did William Sunsing, who scored twice for Brujas FC in a 2-2 tie with Herediano in Costa Rica yesterday.

This was the Revolution’s worst home defeat under Nicol and the worst loss since they fell, 4-0, at FC Dallas May 20, 2006.

‘‘The first goal was bad and it got worse after that,’’ Heaps said. ‘‘We didn’t play well from top to back, from back to front. We tried to fix it but we didn’t do it early enough. In the second half it was all heart and energy but that wasn’t enough.

‘‘This was the first game this year we didn’t compete from the first whistle and for us not to compete hurts.’’

On top of things

The Revolution still lead MLS in points per game (1.74) and goals per game (1.74) ..... D.C. United (8-6-3, 27 points) played without Christian Gomez (ankle), Brazilian midfielder Fred (suspended), and defender Greg Vanney (ankle).

Frank Dell’Apa can be reached at f_dellapa@globe.com.