» Howard Leads Homer Barrage, Phillies Crush Nationals

Howard Leads Homer Barrage, Phillies Crush Nationals

Veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer tossed six shut out innings despite giving up 7 hits, and 1st baseman Ryan Howard led a homer barrage by blasting 2 bombs to centerfield, augmented by shots by centerfielder Shane Victorino and 3rd baseman Pedro Feliz. The Phillies busted a 4-0 game wide open in the 6th inning bludgeoning relievers Jesus Colome and Chris Schroder for 8 runs enroute to a 12-2 rout of the Washington Nationals.

In winning, the Phillies remain tied with the Atlanta Braves for 2nd place in the NL East, both teams are 1 1/2 games behind the division leading Florida Marlins. The Braves pounded the 4th place Mets again and Florida edged Arizona.

AP Sports writer Joseph White describes the tone of the game for Yahoo sports;

The fun was back for the high-octane Phillies, who had scored only one run in the first two games of the series. The overdue rampage included four homers: Pedro Feliz to the left field bullpen, Victorino inside the left foul pole, and the two from Howard to right-center—including the first to land in the second deck of bleachers at the new Nationals Park.

Howard went 3-for-5 and drove in four runs with a double and his 11th and 12th homers. Victorino and Feliz had three hits each as the Phillies piled up 15 hits and a season-high in runs. The highlight was an 8 run sixth inning in which 13 players batted.

“It’s huge after the first two games, where we kind of got of to a slow start with hits and runs, to be able to come out and explode the way we did,” said Howard, whose average had dropped to .183 after going 0-for-7 in the first two games. “Hopefully, we can carry it over to our next trip.”

Jamie Moyer (4-3) took the easy victory by throwing six scoreless innings, thanks in large part to an inept Nationals offense that kept failing with runners in scoring position. Washington was on the way to getting shut out for the second consecutive night until two meaningless runs in the seventh off reliever Clay Condrey, who nevertheless was credited with his first save for three innings of work.

Matt Chico (0-6), getting a fill-in start for Shawn Hill (sore elbow), had been pitching well since his recent demotion to the bullpen, but he did little to make a case for returning to the starting rotation. He allowed Howard’s RBI double in the first, Feliz’s home run in the second and homers by Victorino and Howard in the fifth as his ERA grew to 6.19.

“The pitch that kind of sucked the energy out of us was that 0-2 breaking ball that he hung to Howard,” manager Manny Acta said.

The Nationals, meanwhile, put on their own hitting clinic: a perfect how-not-to-do-this video. They had men on first and third with no outs in the second and fourth innings and failed to score both times. In the third, there was a man on second with no outs—with the same fruitless result.

[Elijah] Dukes, in particular, had a terrible night. He twice struck out with men on first and third and was booed back to the dugout both times.

Moyer worked against runners on in five of his six innings. In the second inning, Moyer emerged unscathed after getting into a none out 1st and 3rd jam. Centerfielder Lastings Milledge and catcher Jesus Flores each singled to open the inning and Milledge stole 3rd. But Moyer got a fly out to center and 2 strikeouts, including Dukes, to escape the inning.

In the third, after a leadoff double, 2 ground outs and a walk, Moyer got Milledge to fly out to centerfield.

In the fourth, facing runners on 1st and 3rd after a double and single, Moyer got Dukes, the dunce with the .057 BA, once again on strikes, followed by a fly out and a ground out to again escape trouble.

Washington finally broke through to score two runs in the seventh inning on reliever Condrey. Rightfielder Dukes led off with a single and was rubbed out at 2nd on a fielder’s choice ground out. After a fly out, 2nd baseman Felipe Lopez doubled putting runners on 2nd and 3rd. 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman followed with an RBI single, putting runners at 1st and 3rd with 2 down. 1st baseman Dmitri Young drove in the 2nd run with a single to centerfield putting runners at 1st and 2nd. But Condrey got a swinging 3rd strike on Milledge to end the inning.

For all of the scores, boxscores and recaps on Wednesday’s games, click here.

The Phillies move on from Washington to Houston for a 4 game series with the Astros before returning home to play Colorado and Florida.

In Thursday’s opener Kyle Kendrick opposes Roy Oswalt in a a rematch of their April 16th duel which Houston won by a 2-1 score. On Friday, Adam Eaton, vintage 2007 who has only seen the sixth inning once in his last six starts and who has been pounded in two of his last three, faces Brandon Backe. On Saturday, Brett Myers, still trying for a solid outing, opposes Brian Moehler, reliever turned starter who has gone five innings in each of his last 3 starts and has been effective. Sunday’s final bills ace lefthander Cole Hamels and his 19 consecutive scoreless innings opposing Chris Sampson.