By Matt Mitchell, Sports Talk Philly Staff
Washington, D.C. — After Winning the First of the Final Four Games Against the Nationals, Jake Thompson Will Take the Mound Friday Night.
After having one of the worst homestands in recent memory, the Phillies have so far put together an impressive road trip. After Thursday night's 4-1 victory in which Alec Asher got his first major league victory, the Phils are 3-1 on their current seven game road trip. A victory Friday night will ensure them no worse than a split against the division leading Nationals in the two teams' final series against each other for the 2016 season. A continuation of Thursday night can also make the National League East Playoff Race interesting.
Washington comes into Friday night eight games ahead of the second place Mets. At this point, the Mets are realistically the only team to challenge the Nationals, whose magic number to clinch the division is currently 15. Even though 15 is not a small number, compared to many of the other divisional races it is enough to not give the Nationals much anxiety. They have consistently proved themselves to be the strongest team in the NL East, and have also been impressive enough to warrant talks about a possible October run. If the Phillies can continue this strong road trip through Sunday, they can give Washington some slight anxiety heading into the final weeks of the season.
Starting Pitching Matchup:
| Philadelphia Phillies (63-77) | Wasington Nationals (82-58) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RHP | Jake Thompson | RHP | Tanner Roark | ||
| (1-5, 6.48 ERA) | (14-8, 2.89 ERA) | ||||
Jake Thompson — Age: 22;
- Last Start: September 4, 2016, vs. ATL: L, 7.0, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 6 SO, 4 BB
Tanner Roark — Age: 29;
- Last Start: September 3, 2016, at NYM: L, 5.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 SO, 4 BB
Jake Thompson will take the mound tonight for Philadelphia. After having a shaky start to his major league career, Thompson has settled down. Over his past two starts, he has pitched 14 innings while only allowing 3 runs. Sadly, these two performances earned Thompson two losses, as they both came during the most recent homestand in which the Phillies forgot how to hit. Even though he lost both games, it is still encouraging to see Thompson starting to show the ability that propelled to International League MVP at AAA Lehigh Valley.
Opposing Thompson will be Nationals right-hander Tanner Roark. Roark has been a steady presence in the Nationals rotation this season, winning 14 games thus far while posting a sub three ERA. The more impressive aspect, especially in regards to this series, of Roark's season has been his complete dominance of the Phillies. He has a 3-0 record with a 0.64 ERA against the Phillies in 2016, including a dominant win August 29 in Philadelphia.
Lastly, this pitching match-up is a rematch of the August 29th game in which Thompson's seven inning, two run performance was overshadowed by Roark's seven shutout innings.
Starting Lineups:
| Philadelphia Phillies (63-77) | Washington Nationals (82-58) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Player | Bats | Position | Player | Bats | ||
| 1 | 2B | Ceasar Hernandez | S | 1 | CF | Trea Turner | R |
| 2 | CF | Odubel Hererra | L | 2 | LF | Jayson Werth | R |
| 3 | 3B | Andres Blanco | S | 3 | 2B | Daniel Murphy | L |
| 4 | 1B | Ryan Howard | L | 4 | RF | Bryce Harper | L |
| 5 | C | Cameron Rupp | R | 5 | 3B | Anthony Rendon | R |
| 6 | SS | Freddy Galvis | S | 6 | C | Wilson Ramos | R |
| 7 | RF | Peter Bourjos | R | 7 | 1B | Ryan Zimmerman | R |
| 8 | LF | Tyler Goeddel | R | 8 | SS | Danny Espinosa | S |
| 9 | P | Jake Thompson | R | 9 | P | Tanner Roark | R |
Broadcast Information:
- First pitch: 7:05 p.m.
- TV: CSN
- Radio: SportsRadio 94 WIP
Game Notes:
- 1) Just Keep Winning: This road trip has started out quite nicely so far for the Phillies, especially after the 0-6 homestand that preceded it. After a dominant win Thursday night to start off the final series against the Nationals, the Phillies are in a position to head back home Monday with a winning record on this short NL East road trip.
- 2) Jake being Jake: After some rough outing to start his major league career, Jake Thompson has been looking like the top prospect that he is lately. The IL MVP was nothing short of spectacular at Lehigh Valley this year, and his last two starts have been a good sign that he can be spectacular at the major league level. He already has shut down Washington this year, so let's hope he can do so again tonihgt.
- 3) Nationals NL East Dominance: The Washington Nationals enter Friday with an MLB-best 42-19 record against divisonal opponents. They will look to continue that dominance and shrink their magic number after starting the series off with a loss.
Standings:
| Updated: September 9, 2016 | |||||
| NL EAST | W | L | GB | RS | RA |
| Nationals | 82 | 58 | — | 667 | 527 |
| Mets | 74 | 66 | 8.0 | 552 | 532 |
| Marlins | 69 | 71 | 13.0 | 575 | 578 |
| Phillies | 63 | 77 | 19.0 | 514 | 664 |
| Braves | 54 | 86 | 28.0 | 540 | 687 |
| NL WILD CARD | W | L | GB | RS | RA |
| Giants | 74 | 65 | +0.5 | 611 | 556 |
| Mets | 74 | 66 | — | 552 | 532 |
| Cardinals | 73 | 66 | 0.5 | 687 | 614 |
| Pirates | 69 | 69 | 4.0 | 618 | 628 |
| Marlins | 69 | 71 | 5.0 | 575 | 578 |
| Rockies | 67 | 73 | 7.0 | 747 | 731 |
| Phillies | 63 | 77 | 11.0 | 514 | 664 |
What's Next:
- Saturday, September 10, 2016: at Washington Nationals, 7:05 p.m.
- Nationals Park
- RHP Jerad Eickhoff (10-13, 3.86 ERA) vs. RHP Max Scherzer (16-7, 2.88 ERA
- TV: CSN; Radio: SportsRadio 94 WIP
