Cliff Lee struck pitched eight outstanding innings, and Michael Young contributed three doubles as the Phillies defeated the Washington Nationals 4-2 Tuesday night.
The start of the game was delayed by an hour and 14 minutes, but the game went rather quickly as starters Cliff Lee and Ross Detwiler looked locked in from the beginning, with each working through the first five innings without much trouble.
The Nationals got on the board first in the fourth inning when Jayson Werth hit one of Lee's few mistakes of the night into the left field seats, his seventh home run of the year. The Phillies answered back quickly though when, in the bottom of the inning, Michael Young reached on his first double of the night and later scored on a Ryan Howard sac-fly, tying the game at one.
In the fifth, the Phillies looked poised to score again when Delmon Young was awarded first after being hit by a pitch, and then advanced to second on Kevin Frandsen's ground out to third. Lee came up and singled into center field, but Young was thrown out at home, keeping the score tied.
The Phillies broke out against Detwiler in the sixth. Ben Revere led the inning off with a bunt single to second, and Michael Young's second double scored Revere to put the Phils up 2-1, but they weren't done yet. Jimmy Rollins singled and Ryan Howard was hit by a pitch, loading the bases for Domonic Brown with no outs. Brown, the hero in last night's game, couldn't come up with the big hit this time, though, and struck out. Delmon Young was up next, but he looked even worse than Brown, also striking out.
With two outs, Kevin Frandsen came to the plate and made sure the Phillies didn't waste another valuable opportunity with men on, singling into left-center to score Young and Revere. The hit gave the Phillies a 4-1 lead, and the inning was Detwiler's last as he gave up four runs on seven hits in his six innings of work.
Lee retired the Nats in order in the seventh, the fourth time he did so all game. In the bottom of the innning, Michael Young hit his third double with two outs to tie a single-game career high, but was stranded there when Rollins flied out to end the inning.
In the eigth, Lee struck out Steve Lombardozzi before Jeff Kobernus, pinch hitting for reliever Craig Stammen, hit a solo home run to cut the Phils' lead to 4-2. Lee was able to finish the inning, though, getting Anthony Rendon to fly out on his 110th and final pitch of the night. Lee's line for the night: 8 IP, 5 H, 0 BB, 2 ER (2 HR), 9 K.
Jonathan Papelbon came into the game for the ninth inning and worked around a two-out single to Adam LaRoche to nail down his 13th save in 14 tries this season to give the Phillies a 4-2 win.
The Phillies will look to complete the sweep of the three game series with Washington tomorrow as Kyle Kendrick faces off against Gio Gonzalez.
Notes:
The Phillies are now tied with Washington for second place in the NL East, 7 games behind the Atlanta Braves…In the bottom of the eigth, Ryan Howard tripled to right field when he hit a ball under the glove of first baseman LaRoche that most Nationals players initially thought went foul; Howard still got stranded at third, though…Michael Young's sixth inning RBI was the 999th of his career…Cliff Lee picked up his ninth win tonight; he had just six all of last year…
