Werth injured as Washington fails to sweep Philadelphia
The Nationals lost to the Philadelphia Phillies for the first time in eight games and lost yet another starter to a potential serious injury. Sunday’s 9-3 defeat in front of 33,058 soured a weekend that recast the National League East rivalry and overshadowed 19-year-old Bryce Harper’s remarkable first homestand.
Jayson Werth’s sixth-inning departure with a left wrist injury further depleted the offensively starved Nationals (18-10), who managed just five hits against Cole Hamels (4-1), who struck out eight. Two hits came from Harper, who shined in his first appearance against the two-time All-Star, going 2-for-3 and becoming the first teenager since 1964 to steal home.
Werth was hurt attempting to make a sliding catch on Placido Polanco. Werth trapped the ball with his gloved left hand, but his wrist bent sharply backward when his glove hit the ground. He recovered enough to throw the ball before collapsing in a heap and left the field with his left forearm carefully clenched.
The game started on a far brighter note when Harper got swift payback after getting plunked in the back on his first pitch from Hamels. Harper advanced to third on Werth’s single, and when Hamels tried to keep Werth on first, Harper took off. Sliding under Carlos Ruiz’s tag, he got up with a quick arm pump and a look back at Hamels, celebrating the 1-0 lead and the second steal of home since the Nationals’ inception.
Two innings later, Jordan Zimmerman (1-3) hit Hamels in the shins, earning a glare from the Philadelphia pitcher and a warning for both dugouts.
Harper singled in his second at-bat, taking a wide turn around first, and he stretched a short, slicing single into a determined double in the eighth inning.
With the first of a pair of two-run home runs, Hunter Pence put the Phillies (14-15) ahead and awakened dormant Philadelphia fans with a first-pitch shot well beyond the left-center wall in the fourth inning.
Pence added his second as Philadelphia scored six times in the ninth inning to end Washington’s four-game winning streak and halt a bid for their first sweep of a home series against the Phillies.
