GAME
RECAP: Nats Edge Phils 3-2
Once again Max
Scherzer flirted
with history, carrying a no-hitter into the sixth inning as he delivered
another dominant start against the Phillies on Tuesday night. He overmatched
the Phillies for eight innings, striking out 11 to lead the Nationals to a 3-2
victory. "I think when he goes out there, we're pretty pumped,"
Nationals outfielder Bryce
Harper said.
"Being able to see him do what he does, every five days he has an
opportunity to go out there and throw a perfect game or a no-no. That just goes
to show how hard he works and how he goes about it. Lot of fun to watch, lot of
fun to play behind, and just an absolute machine.” It was Washington's eighth
consecutive victory over Philadelphia; the Nationals have won 13 of their last
15 games at Citizens Bank Park. Scherzer did not surrender a hit until the
sixth inning, when Freddy
Galvis lined
a leadoff double off the wall in right field. Philadelphia got on the board in
the seventh on a two-run homer from Ryan
Howard, who had struggled mightily against Scherzer in
his career. "We need to improve our plate discipline. We're just not
getting hits," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "It plays into
anybody's strengths who can change speeds." "I knew I needed to
change it up and really start hitting my offspeed early in those first
at-bats," Scherzer said, "because it just seemed like they were going
to be very aggressive on that first-pitch fastball." Phillies right-hander Jerad
Eickhoff entered
the game with a 9.91 ERA from the sixth inning and later this season, so his
day was done following the sixth after a quality start in which he allowed
three runs and struck out four. "I know [Scherzer's] a tough pitcher, so I
know I've got to be on point with my stuff as well," Eickhoff said.
"Try to keep our guys getting into the dugout and [getting] the bats. He
pitched a great game. You know that going in, so it's a challenge."
PHILS PHACTS:
- In the fourth
inning, Trea
Turner ripped
a single into right and Danny Espinosa came flying around third, despite
it being a hard-hit ball right to Aaron Altherr.
Altherr came up firing, and his throw beat Espinosa to the plate by almost
10 feet. But instead of trying to dodge the tag or give himself up, the
6-foot, 206-pound Espinosa came barreling full speed into the stocky,
6-foot-2, 260-pound Rupp. Rupp won, holding onto the ball and getting
Espinosa out. The play raised some eyebrows in the Phillies dugout, with
catcher A.J.
Ellis bringing up rule 7.13, which essentially
states that a runner cannot deviate from his path to the plate to initiate
contact with the catcher. The catcher, until he receives the ball, must
give the runner a clear path. The consensus among the Phillies seemed to
be that Rupp provided the path and that Espinosa chose to ram Rupp anyway.
"You're going to have people that can say Espinosa could have gone to
the inside, but I mean, it's baseball, man," Howard said. "You
can't change every single thing about it. Ruppy's a big guy. He took the
hit. I mean, actually, I think he liked it." "Yeah, it brought
me back to my football days," Rupp said. "I thought it was
ironic that Tim Tebow's trying out for baseball and I'm taking hits at the
plate on the same day."
- Howard
planted a ball in the left-field seats in the seventh to give the Phillies
their runs and third hit off Scherzer and make it a 3-2 game. It was his
20th homer in just 276 at-bats this season. Howard is averaging a home run
every 13.8 at-bats this year, which is his best rate since 2009, when he
averaged a homer every 13.7 at-bats. "It's cool," Howard said.
"It just goes to show, just keep trying to [plug] away and just keep
swinging and doing what you do. Even though it's a lot less at-bats,
hopefully, it shows something." Mackanin had played Howard over Tommy
Joseph because
"a lot of people don't have good numbers against [Scherzer] anyway.
Lefties at least hit him better."
- It initially appeared as though Turner was thrown out on his steal
in the seventh inning. The Nationals challenged the play, however, and the
call was overturned.
- For the ninth time in his 61 starts since he joined the
Nationals before the start of the 2015 season, Scherzer carried a
no-hitter into the sixth inning. He has done so more times than anyone
else in the Majors during that span, almost 15 percent of his starts.
Scherzer did not finish the feat, but still managed to give the Nationals
eight strong innings. He also reached double-digit strikeouts for the 12th
time this season, the most in the Majors and setting a Nationals record. "I'm
sure everybody on the team was thinking [no-hitter], because they've seen
it before," Nationals manager Dusty Baker said.
NEXT
GAME:
Adam Morgan starts Wednesday's series finale at 7:05
p.m. ET as the Phillies look to avoid being swept for the first time since
losing four to the D-backs in mid-June. The Phils have lost their last eight to
the Nationals, and 13 of their last 15 against them at Citizens Bank Park.
Morgan gave up one run over six innings to the Cardinals two starts ago, but
allowed six Mets to score over five innings his most recent start.
PHILS PHACTS:
Howard Still Has Something Left – Ryan Howard hit
his 20th homer of the season in Tuesday night's 3-2
loss to the Nationals at Citizens Bank
Park. It is the 11th time Howard has hit 20 or more homers in a season, so the
accomplishment in and of itself is not unusual. But considering that he has
spent the 2016 campaign in a reserve role, it is noteworthy that he has hit 20
in just 276 at-bats. "It's cool," Howard said. "It just goes to
show, just keep trying to [plug] away and just keep swinging and doing what you
do. Even though it's a lot less at-bats, hopefully, it shows something." Howard
is averaging a home run every 13.8 at-bats this season, his best rate since
2009, when he averaged a homer every 13.7 at-bats. He averaged a homer every
23.2 at-bats the previous three seasons. Howard is hitting .196 with 20 homers,
45 RBIs and a .692 OPS, but he has hit .299 with nine homers, 20 RBIs and a
.992 OPS in 87 at-bats since July 3. Howard was 1-for-20 with 13 strikeouts in
his career against Nationals ace Max
Scherzer before
hitting the two-run homer to left in the seventh. Phillies manager Pete
Mackanin had played Howard over Tommy
Joseph because
"a lot of people don't have good numbers against [Scherzer] anyway.
Lefties at least hit him better." "Felt good, but I was able to make
the adjustment," Howard said. "Sometimes I think it's just being a
little bit too quick, but I just try to slow everything down and relax and see
the ball."
Planning
For September – Ryan Howard got a start on Tuesday vs.
Washington's Max
Scherzer, but after this, his name will appear less
frequently on the lineup card. "I'll play [Howard] today, then tomorrow
[Tommy] Joseph," manager Pete Mackanin said. "Then I'll lean on
Joseph a bit more the rest of the way. I want to see him more." The
decision was not passed down the organizational chain; Mackanin said it was his
alone. "It makes sense to see Joseph as much as possible," he said.
"I don't want to happen to him what happened to [Darin] Ruf, where we
didn't have opportunities to get him at-bats." Joseph, now 250 at-bats
into his big league career, has cooled as Major League pitchers have adjusted
to him. Meanwhile, Howard had performed so well since the All-Star break that
rumors of a waiver deal began to swirl. In 72 at-bats since the halfway point,
Howard has hit .306, with seven home runs. That, combined with Joseph's .247
average over that span and his sub-.300 on-base percentage on the season, led
to an uptick in playing time for the 36-year-old. Joseph got the occasional
start against right-handers, but his role had devolved; that will no longer be
the case. "I'm not going to strictly play Joseph," Mackanin said,
"but I'd like to get him as many at-bats as possible through the end of
the season. "He's got a good approach. He's got some deficiencies. He's
hitting .240- or .250-something. The league has started pitching to some
weaknesses, and .250's not what we're looking for. But it's his first year, and
he's got power."
Goeddel
Remains In Reserve Role – Manager Pete Mackanin and the Phillies
plan to use September's expanded rosters to get an extended look at some of
their young players, but outfielder Tyler
Goeddel won't
be one of them. "I've seen enough of Goeddel to know -- we kept him this
long, we're going to keep him and see where we go next year with him,"
Mackanin said. "I don't feel a need to play him." If the Phillies did
not see a future for Goeddel -- a Rule 5 pick -- in the organization, they
could have returned him to the Rays, but the 23-year-old apparently showed
enough back in May to stick. Goeddel started all 22 games he played in May,
posting a .794 OPS in 79 plate appearances. In the nearly three months since,
he has started exactly as many games as he did that month. He's hardly thrived
in the reserve role. In 111 plate appearances since June 1, his season OPS has
decreased more than 100 points, and he's recorded only 13 hits -- four for
extra bases -- in 100 at-bats. So Jimmy
Paredes again
started in left field on Tuesday -- not for Mackanin to get an extended look,
but to insert some semblance of a power threat into the lineup. "Paredes,
he's an extra player," Mackanin said. "That's why we got him, to try
to get some offense into the lineup. He's been swinging the bat pretty well,
[and Peter] Bourjos is coming off a wrist injury. We're just trying to get
Paredes as many at-bats as possible to see if he can help us win a few
games." The biggest chunk of Paredes' playing time has come since Aug. 1.
His 10 games started is only two fewer than the 12 he started in the two months
after the Phillies acquired him. He's hit .244 with a pair of home runs in
August, and struck out 13 times in 45 at-bats.
Today
In Phils History – In 1894, Billy Hamilton (the original Billy
Hamilton) stole 7 bases in an 8 inning win over Washington. With rumors of a
fix swirling in 1920, Cubs pitcher Claude Hendrix is scratched from his
scheduled start in favor of former Phillie Pete Alexander who subsequently lost
the game 3-0. The Phillies chartered their 1st flight on this day in
1950 flying from St. Louis to Boston (a 1t experience for many players) and
prompting a call to TWA head Howard Hughes after experiencing significant
turbulence during a thunderstorm. 6 years later, with starting pitcher Harvey
Haddix having to withdraw due to back spasms, infielder Granny Hamner steps in
as an emergency starter and goes 4 1/3 innings giving up 4 runs and 9 hits
which taking the loss (he also made 2 other relief appearances that season and
took the loss both times). Despite a career 594-510-1 records and 3 division
titles, the Phillies fired manager Danny Ozark on this day in 1979 and replaced
him with former pitcher and minor league and scouting director Dallas Green. In
2006, in the 4th inning of a game against the Nationals at RFK
Stadium, Ryan Howard connected for his 49th homerun of the season
breaking the franchise single season record previously held by Mike Schmidt.
The following season, Kane Davis became the 28th pitcher used by the
Phillies that season setting a new team record. In 2011, Cliff Lee became the 3rd
pitcher in MLB history to have 2 consecutive months during which he had 5+
wins, 0 losses, and an ERA under 0.50. 2 years later, the Phillies traded away
John McDonald and Michael Young in 2 separate transactions. John Mayberry Jr.
met the same fate on this day the following season. Finally, happy 58th
birthday Von Hayes!
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies are currently 60-72 this season putting them on pace to beat most
preseason predictions. All time, the Phillies are 48-61-0 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.
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