Nationals Roll Over Dispirited Phillies

The first place Washington Nationals rolled into Citizens Bank Park on a 6-game winning streak, and extended their streak to 7 in a row by dumping the last place Phillies by a 5-2 score. The Phils were possibly still reeling from the pre-game announcement of the resignation of skipper Ryne Sandberg, who was replaced on an interim basis by Pete Mackanin.

Max Scherzer, who threw a 1-hitter and a no-hitter in his previous two starts, flirted with perfection o

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nce again. The Nats righty ace, who was the subject of this series’

TBOH opponent player highlight piece

by Tyler DiSalle, took a Perfect Game into the 6th before a

1-out double ended it.

Still, Scherzer (9-5) dominated the Phillies, allowing 2 earned runs on just 5 hits while striking out 7 and walking no one.

The Nats got on the board with a single run in the top of the first inning. Michael Taylor led off with a double, and later scored on an infield single from Wilson Ramos. That score held until the middle frames, when the visitors pulled away with two runs in both the 5th and 6th innings.

In the top of the 5th, Scherzer led off with a single to right field off Phils’ starter Aaron Harang. He would later score on a Danny Espinosa sac fly. An error by Domonic Brown, who quite simply dropped a fly ball to right, allowed Taylor to score the Nationals 3rd run.

In the 6th, Tyler Moore led off with a base hit. He would then score ahead of a 2-run homer off the bat of the next hitter, Matt den Dekker, making it a 5-0 lead.

Harang (4-10) would be finished having gone 6 innings in which he allowed 4 earned runs on 9 hits. After a very hot start to the season, Harang has not won a game in almost six weeks.

The Phillies got one back in the bottom of the 7th when Cesar Hernandez led off with a double, and then scored on a 2-out RBI double by Brown. In the 8th, Ben Revere dropped a homerun into the first row of seats in right field, cutting the Nationals lead down to 5-2.

For the 9th, Drew Storen came on in relief of Scherzer. Ryan Howard laced a one-out single but was erased on a force out grounder by Brown, who subsequently moved up to 2nd on ‘defensive indifference’. Cody Asche followed with a base hit to center, but Brown ran through the stop sign at 3rd, and was caught out in a rundown for the game’s final out.

In his first managerial post-game press conference, Mackanin’s first question was on the Brown game-ending gaffe. “Dom’s gotta realize that his run doesn’t mean anything, and almost anticipate that he’s not gonna be sent. And he was just very aggressive, trying to make something happen, and…it was the wrong move. It is what it is.”

That last part, the “It is what it is” part, is something that simply must be addressed with this team. It’s one thing to expect your team will have a losing season. It’s another to accept repeated bonehead plays, and keep running the player producing those out there in your lineup. It will be interesting to see how Mackanin handles Brown going forward.

With the Ryne Sandberg resignation earlier in the day, this ending to yet another loss was almost perfect in it’s debacle orientation. So now Mackanin is 0-1 on the season as the Phillies manager, and falls to 53-54 in his all-time MLB managerial career.