Ryan Howard's early homeun lifted the Phillies offense to a seven-run night
Photo: Philliedelphia/Andrew Gillen
Last evening, a first inning three-run homerun off the bat of Marlon Byrd was the single piece of production in Phillies loss to the Washington Nationals. As has been the case for a good portion of this season, the starting pitching was terrific, and kept the team in the game for their entire performance. Unfortunately, when the bullpen was summoned for relief, things went straight downhill, and the team fell back under .500. With A.J. Burnett heading to the mound in tonight's game, the Phillies would have yet another opportunity to ride their starter's performance to a win. Tanner Roark would attempt to stop any chance of a Phillies victory.
The Game: Ryan Howard seems to be in good form this season, much better, at least, than he has been in the previous couple of years. His presence got the scoring started for the home squad in the first frame. With one away, Jimmy Rollins reached base with a single. He would steal second base during Chase Utley's at bat, who would go on to walk to first base. With that, The Big Piece came up and lifted a ball just over the left field wall for a three-run, opposite field homerun, his sixth of the season. The Phillies held an early 3-0 lead.
Philadelphia would tack on an extra run in each of the second and fourth innings. The first of those came off of Cody Asche's revitalized bat, a solo homerun that quickly flew out of the park in right. The fourth inning saw Domonic Brown record just his fifth extra base hit of the season, a double toward Denard Span in center. Carlos Ruiz came up next, and his double brought Brown in to score and moved the Phillies advantage to 5-0.
The bases would become filled with Phillies in the home half of the fifth inning. Tony Gwynn Jr. and Jimmy Rollins each singled, while Chase Utley walked for his second time in the game. Despite Ryan Howard striking out on three pitches, Marlon Byrd broke through with a single to score two and give his team a 7-0 lead.
A.J. Burnett, as you may have guessed, didn't need that many runs. He was dealing all night, with the single blemish coming on a sixth inning solo homrun by Adam LaRoche that just cleared the right field fence. Burnett was set to come back out and pitch the seventh, but a rain delay ended his ballgame prematurely.
After the short shot of rain, the action continued in the seventh. Mario Hollands came in for the Phillies, and gave up the Nationals second run. Zach Walters hit his third homerun of the season, a liner into the left field corner. Mike Adams would come in to pitch a 1-2-3, two-strikeout eighth inning, a quick turn around from his performance last night. Antonio Bastardo came into the ninth to close things out, and the Phillies come away with a 7-2 victory, once again reaching the .500 mark at 14-14.
Impact: Three notable performances to at least rest your head on after tonight: A.J. Burnett's start, the Phillies offense, and the bullpen. Burnett continued to dominate and show that his groin injury is of no concern going forward. The Phillies bats, including those of Howard, Byrd, and Asche, put together some substantial plate appearances in the ballgame, and look to be something of an impact the rest of the season. Worth noting is Jimmy Rollins, who strung together his first four hit game since June of 2012. Finally, the bullpen of Mario Hollands, Mike Adams, and Antonio Bastardo managed to work three innings of just one run ball.
Up Next: In Sunday's rubber match between the Phillies and Nationals, Roberto Hernandez will take to the hill to battle Gio Gonzalez at 3:05 eastern time.
