If it didn't sink in during last night's game, it definitely sunk in tonight: This is a new era of Phillies baseball in the outfield. Nate Schierholtz and Domonic Brown started tonight (Brown in LF) with John Mayberry, Jr. in center. As much as it hurts to say this, Shane and Hunter are an outfield duo of the past.
The Nationals beat up on Vance Worley in the first inning, taking a 2-0 lead. Bryce Harper scored on an RBI single from Adam LaRoche, and Chad Tracy scored on a fielder's choice from Danny Espinosa. The extra run wouldn't have scored if not for Kevin Frandsen's error.
In the third inning, Jimmy Rollins jacked his 11th home run over the bullpens in right field to put the Phillies on the board. Jimmy homered again in the fifth inning, another solo shot. Nate Schierholtz followed with a solo homer of his own, giving his new team a 3-2 lead.
After that ugly first inning from Worley, he settled in and got in quite a groove. He would pitch seven strong tonight allowing just two runs on six hits, walking one with no strikeouts. He tossed 86 pitches tonight, 54 for strikes. Vance's ERA stands at 3.63.
Antonio Bastardo pitched 1/3 of an inning of relief before making way for Josh Lindblom who gave up a single to Ryan Zimmerman and then struck out Michael Morse in his Phillies debut. With two outs, Charlie Manuel brought in Jeremy Horst. Horst didn't need to do much as Zimmerman was caught stealing to end the inning.
Jonathan Papelbon came in for the bottom of the ninth to close it out with a 3-2 lead. Papelbon closed it out beautifully, and led the Phils to their second straight win. They'll go for the series sweep tomorrow with Cole Hamels on the mound against Ross Detwiler. Game time is 7:05.
