Phillies Lose *Sixth* Straight After Loss to Nationals

In a game that could have been a lot closer than it was, the Phillies offense showed some heart against a tough Max Scherzer who pitched eight innings and only gave up four hits.

Our own Sean O’Sullivan gave up a three-run home run to Bryce Harper after a single, hit batter, and a flyout to start the bottom of the first inning.

After a triple by Obdubel Herrera in the third inning, the Phillies were able to get to Scherzer and drive in a run off a Freddy Galvis ground ball to second baseman Danny Espinosa.  After a shutout bottom of the third for O’Sullivan, Espinosa would go on to hit a lead-off home run in the bottom of the 4th inning to make the score 4-1.

O’Sullivan was able to make it through the next inning unscathed to be replaced in the 6th by Jeanmar Gomez, who came in for a shutout inning against batters Danny Espinosa, Michael Taylor (not that one), and Max Scherzer.

After popping out Dan Uggla in the bottom of the 7th to start the inning, Jeanmar gave up an infield single to Ian Desmond before lining out Jayson Werth.  In a questionable move, Ryne Sandberg pulled Gomez to bring in Jake Diekman, hopefully the idea was just for work against a lefty.  But it lead to the imminent scoring of runs, as Diekman gave up three runs in that third inning of work.

Ken Giles came into the bottom of the 8th inning and gave up one hit with two strikouts.  The Phillies offense was quiet from the 4th inning until the 9th inning, where they were able to bank a run on some small ball and a little help from Ryan Howard to finish off the game losing 7-2.

The Phillies look to halt the streak tomorrow at Nationals Park, first pitch at 1:00 pm.