Notes From The Phillies’ 17-3 Win Over Washington

The Philadelphia Phillies snapped their three-game losing streak on Saturday night, taking down the Nationals 17-3. Their record improves to 2-3.

On The Mound

• Aaron Nola got the start and the win, allowing three runs on seven hits over six innings.
• Nola found himself in a first-inning jam, loading the bases with one out. However, Nola beared down and got Ryan Zimmeran to hit into a double-play to end the threat.
• Nola seemed to run out of steam a bit in the sixth, where he allowed two of his three runs to score.
• Pat Neshak pitched a scoreless seventh.
• Edubray Ramos worked a clean eighth and finished off the game in the ninth.

At The Plate

• The offense exploded for 17 runs on 15 hits.
• The bats got to Nationals’ starter Jeremy Guthrie early, putting up 10 runs on the veteran, who did not make it out of the first inning. Maikel Franco knocked in the first run with a sacrifice fly, Michael Saunders followed him with an RBI-single, Tommy Joseph came through with his first hit of the season, knocking in the team’s third run, Freddy Galvis got a fourth run home with a sacrifice fly, Cesar Hernandez walked with the bases loaded for the fifth run, and Howie Kendrick blew the game open with a bases-clearing triple to make it 8-0. Odubel Herrera then beat out a play at first to drive in Kendrick to make it 9-0, and Maikel Franco followed him with an RBI-double.
• Kendrick finished the game 3-5, driving in four runs.
• Hernandez went 2-4 at the top of the order with a walk, a triple, a double, and drove in two runs.
• Saunders finished 3-5, with a triple and double, he fell a homerun shy of the cycle.
• Tommy Joseph picked up another hit later in the game, finishing the night with three RBI’s.
• Cameron Rupp hit a solo home run in the eighth.
• Andres Blanco picked up a pinch-hit solo home run.

Final Thoughts

The team’s offensive outburst in the first inning was a thing of beauty. It’s easily one of the best highlights for this franchise over the last few years, and it came at a very welcome time.

With Aaron Nola struggling a bit in the first inning, getting him a wealth of run support went a long way towards settling him down and allowing him to pitch with confidence. Nola starts his season with a solid victory against a heavy-weight team like Washington, and hopefully he’ll be able to build off of that momentum.

The Phil now have a chance to take two of three from the Nats in tomorrow’s series finale.