After losses over the past few years, we have heard a lot about how “the boys battled”. Today, they actually did and while they came up short, this is not a performance to be upset about. The offense battled and gave it their all, but at the end of the day, the Phillies just had a little bit more fire power.
While they showed a lot of fight today, the Nats were still sloppy, especially early on. Mitchell Parker was far from sharp, but his defense did him no favors. They made two errors in the first two innings. That, as well as a lack of control from Parker gave the Phillies chances to pounce.
They did just that, jumping on Parker. The Nationals southpaw allowed six runs, five of them earned in just 1.2 innings of work. Parker showed some real promise last year and early this year, but it might be time to give someone else a chance in that rotation spot. The Nats lefty now has an ERA of 5.83 for the season and a 9.19 mark his last seven starts.
One guy who I think deserves a look is Riley Cornelio. After struggling his first couple years as a pro, he has had a true breakout this year. He has gone from High-A to Triple-A. Last year there was a pitching prospect who had a similar rise from obscurity. His name was Brad Lord and look what he is doing now. While he has only had a couple starts at AAA, it could be time to see what Cornelio can do.
While the pitching staff was not great today, the offense was battling and putting together a lot of quality at bats. The Nationals had 13 hits today, with Luis Garcia Jr., CJ Abrams and Daylen Lile all had multi-hit games.
In the third inning, the Nats started down by six runs, but got it all back in that inning. They got hit after hit against returning Phillies starter Aaron Nola. Seven straight Nationals hitters reached base to put an end to Nola’s afternoon.
A game that looked over in the second inning was now flipped on its head. The score was now 6-6 and it was a battle of the bullpens. Unsurprisingly, the battle of the bullpens was shaky for the Nats rag tag bunch. The ‘pen allowed five runs this afternoon with Orlando Ribalta and Konnor Pilkington continuing to struggle. However, guys like Clayton Beeter had solid outings for the most part.
The Phillies just kept tacking on runs. They scored two in the 4th, one in the 6th, and two in the 8th. Before the Nats knew it, the game was 11-6 in the 9th. However, the boys were not done battling just yet.
In the last week or so, the Nationals have decided that they will not go away easily. That is a change we all like to see. For most of June and July, this team had a tendency to roll over. That has not been the case lately.
The top of the order led the charge. New leadoff man Luis Garcia Jr. started things off with a single. Garcia had a great day at the top of the lineup. CJ Abrams came up next and ripped a double into the gap. Then the red hot Paul DeJong hit a huge three run homer to cut the deficit to two.
With Phillies closer Jhoan Duran still warming up, the laboring Max Lazar had to face one more batter in Daylen Lile. The sweet swinging Lile smelled blood in the water and ripped another double into the gap.
Rob Thomson finally turned to his closer to deal with the Nats two young stars. Dylan Crews came up first. He put up a valiant battle against the flame thrower, but eventually Duran got the best of him, getting a ground out.
Then James Wood came up to pinch hit with the game on the line. However, he was overpowered by the 103 MPH heat of Duran. That was the ball game, the Nats lost 11-9. While they couldn’t get the series win, the Nats got a split with the mighty Phillies.
Their performance this series and during the last road trip is something to build on down the stretch. It seems like Miguel Cairo’s message is finally getting through to the players and they are battling out there. The return of Dylan Crews has also seemed to reenergize the group.
Watching Nats games lately has been much more fun then it had been the past couple months. They look more like the team that went 28-30 through the first two months. The team is still very flawed, but can also provide some excitement and get some wins. Hopefully these kinds of high energy battles can continue down the stretch.