Morgan's solid outing wasted as Phillies drop ninth straight to Nats

Morgan’s solid outing wasted as Phillies drop ninth straight to Nats

Rebecca Serad

August 31 2016

By: Rebecca Serad, Sports Talk Philly Staff

Final: Washington Nationals 2, Philadelphia Phillies 1 ❖ Attendance: 16,503

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Phillies (60-73) were desperately looking for the offense to wake up against the Washington Nationals (78-55) in tonight's match-up. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. The Phillies were held to two hits and one run by Nats righty Gio Gonzalez and the bullpen. Across this three game series, the Phils were only able to muster nine hits. Overall, the offense is hitting under .190 versus Nationals pitchers this season, which simply isn't good enough.

It's a shame that the offense didn't perform, as a fantastic start by Adam Morgan was wasted and he was handed his ninth loss of the season. Morgan threw six and 2/3 innings and allowed three hits. The Nationals were hitless between Jayson Werth's first inning home-run and Anthony Rendon's double in the seventh.

Tonight's loss is the ninth straight to the Nationals. It's also the first time that the Phillies franchise has ever been swept in three consecutive series by the Expos/Nats.

Morgan's solid outing wasted as Phillies drop ninth straight to Nats

WP: Gio Gonzalez (10-9, 4.14 ERA) ❖ LP: Adam Morgan (1-9, 6.21 ERA) ❖ SV: Shawn Kelley (7)

Hub: Game Summary ❖ Starting Pitchers ❖ At the Plate ❖ Bullpen ❖ What's Next

Game Summary

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
WSH	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	6	0
PHI	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	1

The Nationals jumped on Phillies starter Adam Morgan early. With one out, former Phillie Jayson Werth homered into the camera well in dead center field. Werth had seemed impatient at the plate, swinging at a pitch when the count was 3-0, but ultimately smacked the ball approximately 350 ft. with a 3-1 count. That was the only hit and run of the inning, but it ended up having an effect on a low-scoring game.

Both offenses were quiet until the bottom of the fifth. Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis stepped to the plate with one out and muscled a ball over the left field wall into the flowerbed. It was Galvis' fifteenth home-run of the season and helped tie the game at one run apiece. Unfortunately, the Phils were unable to tack on any more runs.

In the top of the seventh, the Nats were able to take advantage of a tiring Morgan, who had a pitch count close to 100. With two outs, Morgan allowed his first hit since the homer to Werth in the first inning. That hit came off the bat of Anthony Rendon, who shot a double down the left field line. Catcher Wilson Ramos followed with a single to right. Phillies outfielder Aaron Altherr came up throwing, but he was too late to get the out at home. The Nationals' first back-to-back hits of the game handed them the lead they were looking to take back. Morgan was removed at this point in favor of reliever Edubray Ramos. He promptly allowed an infield single to Ryan Zimmerman and walked Danny Espinosa to load the bases. However, Ramos was able to get pinch-hitter Clint Robinson to ground out to end the inning and leave the bases loaded. This was all the Nationals needed to secure the victory over the struggling Phillies offense.

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Starting Pitchers