Joseph Homers Twice in Phils 9-6 Loss to Nats
The Phillies (29-32) scored the first four runs in tonight’s contest, but Phillies pitching was not able to contain the NL East leading Nationals (37-24) and their high-powered offense as the Nats stormed back in this one to take it by a final of 9-6.
The Phillies scored in a variety of ways to open up the ballgame tonight. Cody Asche’s RBI single to center field opened up the scoring. The next batter, Tyler Goeddel, executed a perfect “suicide squeeze” to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead in the 2nd inning. Tommy Joseph hit the first of his two home runs in the 3rd inning that gave the Phillies a 4-0 advantage. The Nationals would take over from that point, as in the bottom half of the 3rd ex-Phillies Jayson Werth’s two RBI double cut the Phillies advantage in half. Wilson Ramos and Stephen Drew hit back-to-back solo home runs in the 4th inning that knotted the game up at 4. Daniel Murphy’s two RBI double in the 5th gave the Nats a 6-4 lead that they would not surrender. Danny Espinosa homered in the 6th to make the lead 7-4 and by the end of the 7th inning it was a 9-4 Nationals advantage. Joseph’s second homer of the game came in the 8th inning that made the score 9-6 in favor of Washington. Joseph was the only Phillie to record multiple hits as he went 2 for 4 with 4 RBIs in tonight’s contest. Murphy and Espinosa led the way for Washington as they went 2 for 4 with 3 RBIs and 3 for 4 with 1 RBI, respectively.
Phillies starter Jeremy Hellickson managed to get through 6 innings tonight, but they were not a pretty six innings. Hellickson allowed 7 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks while striking out 2 batters and earning the loss in tonight’s contest. Hellickson was hurt again by the long ball allowing three different Nationals to hit solo home runs. He falls to 4-4 on the year with an ERA of 4.34. Recently recalled reliever Luis Garcia provided two innings of relief tonight, allowing 2 runs on 2 hits and 2 walks. Nats starter Stephen Strasburg didn’t have his best stuff tonight either, as he allowed 4 runs on 5 hits and a walk while striking out 10 in 7 innings pitched. Strasburg did earn the win however as he improves to 10-0 on the season with a 3.03 ERA. Ex-Phillie Jonathan Papelbon earned the save in tonight’s ballgame, his 16th of the season, as he pitched a scoreless 9th inning.
The Phillies and Nationals are back at it tomorrow afternoon at 12:05 p.m. for the second game of this three game weekend set. Phillies starter Aaron Nola (5-4, 2.65 ERA) will take on Tanner Roark (4-4, 3.21 ERA) of the Nationals in a Saturday afternoon matinee at Nationals Park in Washington. Nola will look to keep the Nats’ bats in check and keep his impressive first full season going.
Photo: c/o Phillies via Twitter (www.twitter.com/Phillies)
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