Phillies Avoid Late-Inning Scare, Defeat Nationals
By: Mike Reisman
It's going to take a while to get used to, but for the first time in a couple of years, the Phillies are going to have to win games with pitching, not hitting. This seemed like it finally sunk in tonight, as the Phillies faced the Nationals in game two of this series. The Phillies had the luxury of facing John Lannan who had a pitiful 0-8 record against the Phillies coming into the game. The Phillies also had the luxury of having their ace, Roy Halladay, pitch for them. Unfortunately, the game was not as easy as it seemed.
As they have done in almost all of their games, the Phillies landed the first strike of the game, scoring Jimmy Rollins on a Ben Francisco ground-out in the 4th. The next inning, the Phillies added two runs with a Placido Polanco single and a bases loaded hit-by-pitch to Ryan Howard, making the score 3-0 after five.
Halladay would hold the lead for the Phillies, keeping the Nationals quiet and only allowing four base-runners for the first eight innings. However, despite his great pitching, the Nationals came into the 9th looking for a comeback. They were able to get runners on the corners with no outs to start the 9th. After Adam LaRoche struck out, Laynce Nix and Danny Espinosa each singled, cutting the Phillies lead to a single run with runners on first and second. However, Roy Halladay is the reigning Cy Young winner for a reason, and he was able to strike out Matt Stairs and Ivan Rodriguez to end the game.
The final score was 3-2 Phillies, with Doc improving to 2-0, and Lannan going to 1-1.
The Phillies had a decent game today, however, with the past two performances by the line-up, there is really nothing to be too excited about. Of course, this is still the team that tore up the competition for eight games, so this may seem a little reactionary, but the team has just not been playing at the same level these last two games. The thing that stands out the most from today's game though, is that the 4, 5, and 6 hitters went a combined 0-11, something that needs to change if the Phillies want to have a chance against teams that can hit or pitch, or both.
On the other side of the ball, Roy Halladay pitched a great game, just up until the 9th inning, where his fatigue started to show. However, this is to be expected for a pitcher who throws a complete game for the first time in a season. Hopefully, this is all Halladay needs to get re-adjusted to throwing 120+ pitches, and the end of the 9th showed promise for this, as the Phil's ace got his last three outs on strikeouts. Those last outs show something, not only about his stamina, but about his drive and desire to win. Most pitchers would throw in the towel and possibly blow the game, but not Halladay, and that's also probably why Charlie Manuel elected to keep him in the game.
Another note about today; it marks the two-year anniversary of the death of the great Harry Kalas, who died before a game at Nationals Park two years ago. There is no doubt that the Phillies had an added motivation playing for him. RIP Harry.
The Phillies play the final game of this series tomorrow at 7:05 when ace number two, Cliff Lee faces Jordan Zimmermann.