GAME
RECAP: Phillies Sweep Nationals 3-0
The Nationals and Phillies found themselves in a
pitchers' duel on Thursday afternoon, but thanks to some clutch ninth-inning
hitting, the Phillies completed their three-game sweep, winning 3-0 at
Nationals Park. It was the Phillies' first sweep at Nationals Park since 2009. Scoreless
heading into the ninth inning, the Phillies loaded the bases with one out and Jonathan
Papelbon on
the mound. On a 2-2 pitch, Cameron
Rupp doubled
over Bryce
Harper's head in right field to score Odubel
Herrera and Freddy
Galvis. Two batters later, David Lough reached base on an infield single,
scoring Maikel
Franco. All three runs were charged to
Nationals reliever Felipe
Rivero, who allowed two hits and an intentional walk to
start the inning. Rivero started the inning because manager Dusty Baker didn't
like the matchup between Papelbon and the top of the Phillies' batting order. "Sometimes,
those things don't work. It's just one of those days where nothing
worked," manager Dusty Baker said. "We'll get it fixed. It's not easy
while you're in it, and it doesn't take long to get in a funk like that. You
don't have any choice. You just gotta keep playing, keep grinding." The
upstart Phillies finished their road trip at 5-1. "When we started 0-4,
that obviously wasn't a good start, but the guys just hung in there,"
Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "This is huge to get our confidence
back. The guys scrape and scratch, but you've got to hand it to the pitching.
The pitching is the reason we're able to win games." The Nationals
collected four hits in the game against four Phillies pitchers and scored only
three runs during the three-game series.
PHILS PHACTS:
- After walking Harper five times in the first two games, the
Phillies wound up pitching to Harper in two key situations on Thursday.
Harper grounded out to second with a runner on third to end the sixth
inning and struck out swinging on three pitches with the bases loaded to
end the bottom of the eighth.
- With Hernandez on second and two out in the fifth, Peter Bourjos hit a hot smash down the third-base line that Stephen Drew drove to grab. As the ball slithered behind him, the seasoned
veteran lunged to pick it up, and with a spinning move, he tagged out the
sliding Hernandez.
- The Phillies held the Nationals scoreless for 22
consecutive innings. In Thursday's game, the Nationals went 1-for-6 with
runners in scoring position. "It was one of those days where nothing
worked our way -- offensively or defensively," Baker said.
- After walking to lead off the game against Roark, it appeared
Herrera had stolen second base. But after a 45-second review, the call was
reversed, and Herrera was thrown out by Nationals catcher Pedro Severino.
NEXT
GAME:
They open a three-game Interleague series
against the Indians on Friday at Citizens Bank Park at 7:05 p.m. ET. With the
season-ending hamstring injury to Charlie Morton, Mackanin has yet to announce
a starter for the opener. Corey Kluber is expected to start for Cleveland.
PHILS PHACTS:
No Trouble With The Curve – Phillies
starter Aaron Nola was on a mission to find himself on
Thursday against the Nationals. And what he found at Nationals Park was the
right combination of a split-finger fastball with a devastating curve. "I
felt better about that pitch," Nola said, when asked about the curve. "I
felt like I had a much better feel for it than the last few games." It was
certainly enough for him to stymie the Nationals, as he allowed just two hits
during seven scoreless innings in a 3-0 win. The win gave the Phillies their
first sweep at Nationals Park since May 2009. It was also enough for Nola to
match Nationals starter Tanner Roark,
who also worked seven innings of two-hit, shutout ball. Neither pitcher was
around when the Phillies scored three times in the ninth inning to end their
road trip 5-1. "Nola was pretty darn good today," Phillies manager
Pete Mackanin said. "He had a low pitch count. I even thought about
letting him go back out for the eighth inning and not hitting for him. But we
had to try to score some runs." Mackanin saw a pitcher who has now made a
pair of stellar starts since allowing seven runs on seven hits in the first
five innings of an 8-1 loss to the Nationals at home on April 16. Nola threw
seven innings of one-run, four-hit ball in a 5-2 win over the Brewers in
Milwaukee on April 22 and followed it up on Thursday with this gem. The
Phillies' manager had so much confidence in Nola that he let him pitch to
Nationals slugger Bryce Harper with a runner on third and two out in
the sixth inning. In the previous two games, Mackanin had walked Harper five times,
twice intentionally. Not this time, though. "Why not? We can't walk the
guy every time," Mackanin said. "Somebody has to get him out. Eighth
inning I might have done it. But not in that situation. I'm not going to do
it." Harper bounced the ball to the right of second baseman Cesar Hernandez,
who made a fine play by just beating Harper to first base with an impressive
throw. Harper, 2-for-8 in the series with no extra-base hits or RBIs, slammed
his helmet to the turf in frustration. "I felt like I could get him out
right there," Nola said. "I knew he was going to be aggressive with
guys on. All I needed to do was execute a pitch. I did it and got a ground ball
out of it." It was a learning experience, too, for the 22-year old
right-hander, Mackanin said. The manager wanted to show that he believes in
Nola. "I like that," Nola said. "I like that he does have the
confidence in me."
Hinojosa Exits Early – Phillies
right-hander Dalier Hinojosa suffered a bruise on the palm of his
pitching hand when he was struck by a line drive off the bat of Washington
center fielder Matt den Dekker in the eighth inning of Philadelphia's 3-0 win at Nationals Park on Thursday. Phillies
manager Pete Mackanin said X-rays were negative, but he intends to watch the
reliever closely. "We're just going to go day to day and see how swollen
it gets," Mackanin said. "Let's see what happens. Did he get hit
hard? It sure looked like it." Hinojosa came in to relieve starter Aaron Nola in the bottom of the eighth. With one
out, he walked Pedro Severino. The
next batter, pinch-hitter Chris Heisey, lined
a shot off Hinojosa's glove that second baseman Cesar Hernandez turned into a forceout. Lightening
then struck twice as den Dekker's shot deflected off Hinojosa's hand for an
infield single, putting runners on first and third. Mackanin and the trainers
went to the mound to examine Hinojosa. "At that point, I was going to make
a change anyway," Mackanin said. Left-hander Elvis Araujo came in, and Washington manager Dusty
Baker countered with pinch-hitter Anthony Rendon, who
walked on a full count pitch to load the bases. But Bryce Harper whiffed swinging on three pitches to
end the Nationals' last threat of the evening.
Pitching To The Lineup – When
the Phillies faced the Nationals at Citizens Bank Park earlier this month, Bryce Harper pummeled Philadelphia pitching. So
prior to this week's three-game sweep that ended on Thursday with a 3-0 win at
Nationals Park, the Phillies' baseball brain trust decided on a different
strategy: pitch around the left-handed power hitter, who is again tearing up
the National League to the tune of a .314 batting average, nine homers and 24
RBIs. "When [the Nationals] were at our place, he was hitting everything.
I don't care if the pitch was a foot off the ground or over his head, he
crushed it," Phils bench coach Larry Bowa said of Harper, who was 7-for-11
in that series, with three homers, six RBIs, 16 total bases and one walk.
"I mean he wore us out." Harper's OPS of 1.252 entering Thursday's
game is impressive, and it compares favorably to the all-time leaders for a
single season in that category. Barry Bonds holds three of the top four and has
the best ever of 1.422 in 2004. A guy name Babe Ruth has the third best and
three of the top six. Now, the Phillies are giving Harper the Ruth and Bonds
treatment. They walked Harper five times in the first two games of the series
-- both Philadelphia victories -- including two intentionally. And then suddenly
on Thursday, they didn't. Mackanin allowed 22-year-old starter Aaron Nola to go right at Harper in the sixth
inning with two out and a runner on third. Harper grounded out to second. Why
did the manager decide to deviate from the plan? "Why not? We can't walk
the guy every time," Mackanin said. "Somebody has to get him out.
Eighth inning, I might have done it. But not in that situation. I'm not going
to do it." In the eighth inning, Mackanin didn't have any choice. The
bases were loaded when Harper came up to face young left-hander Elvis Araujo. He
whiffed on three pitches, swinging at strike three toward the inner part of the
plate. It's a game of constant adjustment, as other great players before Harper
have found. Bonds walked 2,558 times in 22 years, 688 of them intentionally,
both of them all-time records. Ruth is third with 2,062 walks. Harper has only
294 (27 intentional) during the first four-plus years of his career. But other
teams are just getting started. "Let somebody else beat you," Bowa
said. "They've got a good club over there, but [Ryan] Zimmerman is not
swinging too well right now. Obviously, when he starts swinging, you've got to
think a little bit. But when they left our place, Harper just kept hitting. "We'll
have to pitch to him eventually, but if you have a base open or something right
now, you'd be dumb not to walk him." To Bowa's point, Zimmerman -- the
cleanup hitter behind Harper -- is 6-for-29 with no homers and four RBIs in his
past six games, which gave the Phils the option of pitching around the reigning
NL MVP Award winner. It worked. Harper was 2-for-8 in the series, and despite
the five walks, he didn't score once. Zimmerman hasn't hit a homer since April
19 and hasn't had an extra-base hit since April 20. Consequently, Harper has
scored only five times during that period. And the Nats' once five-game NL East
lead over the defending league champion Mets has shrunk to a half-game. "Yeah,
they're going to walk him," said Dusty Baker, Harper's third manager in
his short career. "He's learning a lot in the process. He's learning about
patience. He's taking his walks. It's just a matter of whether they can play on
his emotions and patience, so he loses his concentration and stays in the
strike zone. "Zimm has a track record where he can handle it, I think.
It's just a matter of him not taking it personal, either. I batted behind Hank
Aaron. I was a good hitter, but, dang, I was 23 years old. His advice to me was
not to try to do too much." Harper seemingly has been part of baseball's
fabric for so long, one can forget he's just 23 years old. He was brought up
from Triple-A Syracuse exactly four years ago Thursday at the tender young age
of 19. Harper has had transgressions like most young players, but from the
Phillies' point of view, they're not worried about getting inside either Harper
or Zimmerman's head. They're just trying to keep the MVP off base. Bowa said
he, Mackanin and pitching coach Bob McClure sit on the bench and discuss strategy
when Harper comes up. "I mean, we talk about it, but Pete has to implement
it," Bowa said. "McClure, he'll sit there and he may say, 'Hey, I
don't want to pitch to him right here.' Pete asks, but he has to make the
decision. Before a series, we go over the team, and if there's one guy where we
say, 'We don't want him to beat us,' we try not to let that happen." In
this series, that guy was Harper, and thus far what the Phils are doing has
altered the game more than a bit. Advance scouts from other teams are watching,
and that's the way trends emerge.
Today
In Phils History – On the day that we celebrate the first legal Sunday
home game in Phillies history (1934), we also celebrate Steve Carlton for becoming
the first left handed pitcher (and 6th overall) in major league
history to reach 3000 strikeouts in 1981. Robin Roberts also had a notable pitching
performance when he threw a one-hit shutout against Milwaukee in 1954. The
longest game in Phillies history also took place on this day in 1989… the
Phillies won the rain shortened matchup 8-0 against the Reds after waiting out
rain delays of 151 and 92 minutes respectively. One of the players waiting through
the rain that day was Juan Samuel whom the Phillies signed exactly 9 years
earlier in 1980. Most recently, this is the day when two franchise records for
the month of April were eclipsed when, in 2011, Ryan Howard drove in his 27th
RBI and Placido Polanco recorded his 39th hit breaking Chase Utley’s
record set three years prior.
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies are currently 12-10 this season putting them on pace to beat most
preseason predictions. The Phillies finished the spring exceeding most
expectations compiling a record of 15-11-3 (18-11-3 if you include the
exhibition games against Reading and the University of Tampa). All time, the
Phillies are 46-47-0 on this day. I expect the Phillies to finish in the bottom
half of the division but not last in the NL East by finishing the season with a
77-85 record. Let the rebuild begin!
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