Three home runs just not enough vs. Phillies
He is the last pitcher a struggling team wants to see standing on the mound. But to escape this latest funk — if only for a day — the Nationals needed to deal with Philadelphia Phillies ace Roy Halladay.
A game that on paper appeared a frightful mismatch proved more even than expected during a Memorial Day afternoon game at Nationals Park on Monday. Washington managed to dent Halladay for three home runs — he had allowed just two all season — but it still wasn’t enough. Instead, an RBI single by Ryan Howard and a sacrifice fly from Raul Ibanez in the seventh inning lifted Philadelphia to a 5-4 victory.
So it goes for the Nats (22-31). Even when they manage to score some runs, there remain opportunities left on the bases. Washington fell to 5-13 in one-run games and couldn’t take advantage of four runs and 10 hits vs. Halladay, who in 16 previous innings against the Nats had allowed four runs total. If they had been given that line before the game, several players said they would have been shocked to lose.
| Nationals notes |
| » Nats first baseman Michael Morse extended his hitting streak to eight games with a solo home run in the second inning. He now has seven RBI in his last eight games. |
| » Starting pitcher Livan Hernandez helped his own cause with a safety squeeze in the second that scored teammate Jerry Hairston from third base. |
| » Attendance at Nationals Park for the holiday contest was 34,789. |
“I would have said you were probably not telling the truth,” second baseman Danny Espinosa said. “I thought we hit him well. I thought we played a good ballgame, threw well, everything. I thought it was a good performance by us. They had some hits. They found the right holes. It’s an unfortunate loss.”
Washington had Halladay in trouble in the seventh after a leadoff double by Alex Cora and an infield hit by Ian Desmond. With runners at first and third and none out, Halladay was visibly tiring as his pitch count neared 100 on a hot, muggy day in the District.
But a comebacker by Rick Ankiel deflected off Halladay’s glove and — for a brief instant — Cora thought he could score from third. He quickly realized his mistake when Halladay recovered the ball and caught Cora in the open between home and third. That base running miscue was followed by an Espinosa fly out and a Jayson Werth strikeout.
The Phillies (34-20) got to Washington starter Livan Hernandez in the fourth inning with back-to-back solo home runs by Howard and Ibanez. That began a stretch of five consecutive hits — the last an RBI single by John Mayberry to make it 3-2 Philadelphia.
Solo homers by Espinosa in the fifth inning and Laynce Nix in the sixth put Washington back on top 4-3. But the Phillies took advantage of reliever Sean Burnett in the seventh. He walked Chase Utley and then gave up the RBI single to Howard and the Ibanez sacrifice fly. Just like that a one-run lead was a 5-4 deficit.
“All that stuff about ‘you guys are playing great and staying in the game’ — at the end it doesn’t add up,” Cora said. “You just want to win.”
