It was a fun second inning. The Phillies jumped all over Nationals pitcher Taylor Jordan, featuring a two run blast from Darin Ruf, a safety squeeze RBI from Cliff Lee, and the offense batted around. Unfortunately there were seven and a half innings left.
Lee wasn't bad tonight. His command seemed off and he was starting to labor a bit towards the end of his night so he was given the hook after the sixth. He left allowing a 4-0 game to become a 4-3 game. It had disaster written all over it and it happened. Jake Diekman came in and was all over the place. Zach Miner would come in and threw a hanging slider to Jayson Werth which went into the stands along with the game.
Domonic Brown wouldn't go quietly into the night with his 26th home run of the season and Luis Garcia pitched a decent enough eighth inning. Aside from the bullpen falling apart, the offense was on auto pilot after the second for the most part and accomplished virtually nothing, save for Brown's homer.
It was a frustrating loss but that is becoming quite normal in what is the ugliest start to the second half in recent memory if not ever.
The Phillies will look to prevent a sweep tomorrow at 5:05 as Kyle Kendrick heads to the mound against Stephen Strasburg.
