Tonight's Top 5:
5. Long Firsts: Nats' leadoff man Danny Espinosa lines to right-center on a 3-1 fastball from Philly righty Roy Oswalt and the Nats' rookie infielder moves to second on a sac bunt by Ian Desmond that's sorta old school, but he hustles it out like he's trying for a hit, and sets the Nats' FOF™ up with a runner in scoring position. Ryan Zimmerman rips into an 0-1 curve and lines to left to score Espinosa ahead of Raul Ibanez's throw home. 1-0 Nats. Washington makes Oswalt work for each out and throw 23 pitches in a long top of the first. Or at least it seemed like a long half-inning before Jason Marquis took the mound. The Nats' right-hander who'd shown some improvement in his last few starts took a big step back here, with a lack of control and no luck at all. Marquis gets a popout to short left for the first out then proceeds to give up 6 hits, all singles, (one off the mound and the ump on what should be an inning-ending DP), interrupted only by a HBP (that barely hits Carlos Ruiz) and a walk in a 6-run Philly first. Marquis is done after 0.1 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 38 pitches, 19 strikes, 0 groundouts, 1 flyout and sadly that's not the Nats' big free agent signing's worst start of the year...
4. Play At The Plate: Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez doubles to start the Nats' fourth and moves to third on a sac bunt by Nats' right-hander Miguel Batista. Justin Maxwell, who singled to left in his first at bat, lines to center this time, but Shane Victorino's on it and he catches it coming in, Pudge breaks from third, Victorino unloads a one-hopper to home, Carlos Ruiz makes the catch, blocks the plate, Pudge is toast. 8-1 DP to end the Nats' half of the fourth.
3. E: 115, E: 16: Roy Oswalt sends a grounder toward third in the Philly fourth and Ryan Zimmerman sails the throw over to Adam Dunn, pulling the 6'6'' first baseman off the bag. Miguel Batista walks Shane Victorino to put two on with no one out, but Zim makes up for it when he catches a liner from Placido Polanco and tags Oswalt on the pitcher's way to third. Double play. Utley flies to left, no harm from the Zim-E, except to Zim's chances of repeating as the Gold Glove winner...that's Zim's 16th and the Nats' 115th of 2010.
2. Zim 3 for 3: A line drive to left to score a run in his first AB in the first, a one-out line drive to right that amounts to nothing when he's stranded in the fourth and a liner up the middle in the Nats' sixth, leave Ryan Zimmerman 3 for 3 with three singles on the night. Zim runs from second on a grounder to the mound by Roger Bernadina and gets caught in a rundown to add a mental-E on the basepaths to his throwing error earlier. Zim's 4 for 4 after he hits the second of two Nats' singles to start the top of the eighth. The Nationals fail to score, but Zim's hitting .308 on the year, Silver but no Gold for Zim this year?
1. E: 116: Adam Dunn, who's showing off his glove at first all night, makes another slick play on a sharp grounder to first by Raul Ibanez in the bottom of the eighth, and Nats' right-hander Joe Bisenius gets over to the bag, but drops the toss. Bisenius falls into the baseline, and Ibanez collides with the pitcher and tumbles over him, unhurt, luckily, but that's the Nats' 116th E. Bisenius throws a 97 mph 3-1 fastball to Carlos Ruiz in the next AB and it's gone, two-run blast, 9-1 Phillies. This E comes back immediately...Phillies win, 9-1 final.
• Miss The Game?The DC Faithful Were Watching...
• Final Score: Phillies 9, Nats 1.
• Doghouse's Post Game WPA Graph: "Game 147: Marquis = Countdown to 100 at 15."
- Unlucky AND awful: Jason Marquis (-44.4%) records only one out while giving up 6 ER. To be fair, an inning-ending, bases-loaded DP grounder caromed off the 2nd base ump to turn into an RBI single, but still...
- Never give up! Ryan Zimmerman (+12.5%) is 4-4 with a double and an RBI.
- Defense does not show up in WPA: Adam Dunn (-8.3%) has a terrific night with the glove, but goes 0-4 with 5 LOB.
Nationals now 62-85.