By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Washington D.C.- The Philadelphia Phillies continue their series against the Washington Nationals tonight in the nation's capitol.
The two teams have split the first two games of the series, with Philadelphia taking game one 4-1 and Washington walking off in game two, 5-4. The Phillies have gotten strong pitching performances from their starters so far during the series as Alec Asher pitched six shutout innings on Thursday and Jake Thompson allowed two runs in 5.1 innings on Friday night, striking out five.
Tonight, Jerad Eickhoff will look to extend his quality start streak to four while Nationals ace Max Scherzer aims to continue his success against the Phillies since joining Washington last season.
Starting Pitching Matchup:
| Philadelphia Phillies (63-78) | Washington Nationals (83-59) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RHP | Jerad Eickhoff | RHP | Max Scherzer | ||
| (10-13, 3.86 ERA) | (16-7, 2.88 ERA) | ||||
Jerad Eickhoff has managed to go six innings in each of his last four starts, with three of those outings being quality starts. The 26-year-old right-hander faced the Nationals back on August 30, giving up three runs in six innings during the Phillies 3-2 loss at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies have fared well with Eickhoff on the mound as of late, winning five of the last six games that he has started. His most recent outing came against the Marlins on September 5, allowing two runs in six innings, striking out four.
Max Scherzer is 6-0 with a 1.98 ERA in eight starts against the Phillies since becoming a member of the Nationals last year. In four starts this season, he's 3-0 with a 2.48 ERA, holding Philadelphia hitters to a .194 average. After allowing four runs in back-to-back starts in August, Scherzer has only allowed four runs total over his last three starts.
Starting Lineups:
| Philadelphia Phillies (63-78) |
|
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Player | Bats | Position | Player | Bats | |||||
| 1 | 2B | Cesar Hernandez | S | 1 | CF | Trea Turner | R | |||
| 2 | CF | Odubel Herrera | L | 2 | LF | Ben Revere | L | |||
| 3 | 3B | Andres Blanco | R | 3 | 2B | Daniel Murphy | L | |||
| 4 | 1B | Tommy Joseph | R | 4 | RF | Bryce Harper | L | |||
| 5 | C | Cameron Rupp | R | 5 | 3B | Anthony Rendon | R | |||
| 6 | SS | Freddy Galvis | S | 6 | 1B | Clint Robinson | L | |||
| 7 | RF | Peter Bourjos | R | 7 | SS | Danny Espinosa | S | |||
| 8 | LF | Aaron Altherr | R | 8 | C | Jose Lobaton | S | |||
| 9 | P | Jerad Eickhoff | R | 9 | P | Max Scherzer | R | |||
Broadcast Information:
- First pitch: 7:05 p.m.
- TV: CSN
- Radio: 94 WIP
Game Notes:
- Ryan Howard played the first two games of the series. Tommy Joseph will start the final two tonight and Sunday.
- Current Phillies have a combined .203 average against Max Scherzer. Andres Blanco is 5-for-10, Freddy Galvis is 4-for-22 and Odubel Herrera is 7-for-22.
- The Phillies called up four players from Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Saturday. Cody Asche, Luis Garcia, Phil Klein and Joely Rodriguez will all be available for tonight's game. Top prospects J.P. Crawford and Nick Williams were not among the players moved to the big league club.
- The Nationals magic number to clinch the National League East is 14.
- Peter Bourjos is 7-for-25 this month with four extra-base hits, including a homer on Thursday night during the series opener against Washington.
- Daniel Murphy is 1-for-9 against Eickhoff while Bryce Harper is 1-for-6
What's Next:
- Monday, August 29th, 2016: vs. Washington Nationals at 1:35 p.m.
- Nationals Park
- LHP Adam Morgan (2-9, 5.90 ERA) vs. LHP Gio Gonzalez (10-9, 4.40 ERA)
- TV: CSN; Radio: 1210 WPHT
