Phillies Opposition Roadblock: Washington Nationals

As the Phillies leave a disappointing performance behind in Cincinnati, the roadblock series continues with a look back at the Cincy predictions. It also takes a look at the next team on the docket. Welcome home, Phillies. It is only the NL East favorite, Washington Nationals waiting in your driveway.

The Phillies dropped two out of three from the Reds in the opening series of 2017. As you know, I chose Brandon Finnegan and Joey Votto as the roadblock duo for Cincy. Below, you will find their stats for the series.

Finnegan (7 IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 1 walk, and 9 strikeouts) was dominant against a staggered Phillies offense. At one point, the lefty retired 19 straight Phillies hitters. They looked completely different from the team that we saw on Opening Day. After forcing the 23 year old to throw 25 pitches without scoring a run in the first, the Phillies abandoned the approach immediately. I wrote about avoiding deep counts in his favor for fear of his slider and changeup, but he did not need either. He lived on his fastball all night and the Phillies could not adjust at any point.

Phils Grade: F

Votto (2-11, 1 homerun, 1 strikeout, 1 walk) continued to struggle overall against the Phillies. However, it was one of his two hits that make this prediction successful. Jerad Eickhoff made two mistakes, both with his curveball, on Wednesday evening. One of those was a 1-0 pitch to Votto to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning. And he deposited it into the right field seats to give the Reds there first lead of the series. He added another hit in the series finale. Sometimes the best player in the park only needs one hit to impact an entire series.

Phils Grade: B