Phillies Complete The Sweep of the Nats, 1 Game Up

The Phillies continued their hot streak by winning their fifth game in a row by sweeping the hapless Nationals. The Phillies continued to keep the bats rolling as they continued to drive in runs at timely points in the game. Pitching has done a great job as well, even though the Phillies could not get a lefty reliever, they believe that J.A. Happ could end up going into the bullpen to help them out. Like the Phillies need it, they have arguably the best bullpen in the majors with an all star closer at the end of it.

In the first game of the series, we saw that Brett Myers can still pitch. Even though it was against a team with an anemic offense, Myers pitched seven and a third innings giving up one unearned run and only four hits while striking out two to pick up his 4 th victory of the year. The Phillies didn’t help him out much offensively but they got just enough to beat the Nationals 2-1 in the first of three between these two teams. Brad Lidge picked up his 25 th save in 25 chances. Chase Utley got back on track as he blasted his 26 th homer of the year to give the Phillies the only runs they would need to win this one. Balester pitched well enough to win for the Nationals but their anemic offense could get nothing going against Brett Myers. Balester pitched six innings and gave up only two runs to one of the top offenses in the game.

You try to avoid the big innings in games, and the Phillies just happened to get another one in the second game of the series between these two teams. The Nationals gained the lead in the first inning with a two run homer by Jesus Flores to take a 3-2 lead but they couldn’t hold it. Rollins drove in a run with a double, Victorino followed with a two run single, and then Chase Utley homered again for the second straight night to give the Phillies five runs in the inning before Tim Redding could record an out. The Phillies ultimately won the game 8-5. Jamie Moyer settled down after giving up two homers in the first inning. He pitched six innings, only giving up those three runs, and struck out five in picking up his 10 th win of the year. On the other hand, Tim Redding did nothing to increase his trade value, he pitched four innings giving up seven earned runs off of ten hits to drop to 7-6 on the year. Shane Victorino also homered along with Chase Utley in this game. Brad Lidge picked up his 26 th save of the year in the win.

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In the finale of the series, the Phillies picked up the sweep by continuing to pound the ball consistently. Jayson Werth and Jimmy Rollins each homered for the Fightin’ Phils as they took the game 8-4 to take a 1 game lead on the idle Mets in the division. The Fightins’ pounded out 11 hits in the game as well. Kyle Kendrick pitched very well for Philadelphia as he went six and two thirds innings giving up two earned off seven hits to pick up his 9 th win of the year. John Lannan got knocked around as he gave up eight runs, six of them earned, and he struck out seven in the defeat. The defense definitely did not help Lannan has they committed three errors in the game. Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino each had two hits in the game to lead the Phils and Pete Orr had three hits to lead the Nationals.

Next up the Phils take their five game win streak to St. Louis to battle the Cardinals. This should be an intriguing series as Kyle Lohse will pitch against his former team again. Lohse and the Phillies have made headlines this year with the Phillies saying they did not want a B-List player like Lohse. Lohse fired back saying that the Phillies did not respect him at all and he was glad to leave. The pitching probables are as follows:

C. Hamels (9-6) vs. K. Lohse (12-3)
J. Blanton (5-12) vs. B. Looper (10-8)
B. Myers (4-9) vs. T. Wellemeyer (8-4)

By Andrew Nuscis
Philadelphia Phillies & Tampa Bay Rays Correspondent

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