Ace Roy Halladay clung tightly to the only Phillies run on Friday spreading out 8 hits and 3 walks in seven innings  while holding the Washington Nationals at bay.  Leftfielder Raul Ibanez’s third inning double off of Jason Marquis drove in 2nd baseman Chase Utley with the only run of the game.  Reliever Ryan Madson and closer Brad Lidge finished up with Lidge earning his 17th save in 21 opportunities as the Phils shut out Washington by a 1-0 tally.

On Saturday, Nationals rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg gave up a run on 2 hits in 4 1/3 innings before leaving with an apparent forearm injury. However, Strasburg’s early exit did the stumbling Phillies offense no good.  Meanwhile, the Nationals pounded Kyle Kendrick for 3 first inning runs and 2 more runs in the third while their bullpen held to 5 baserunners over the final 4 2/3 innings.  Nationals leftfielder Roger Bernadina slammed a ninth inning 3 run homer off of reliever Chad Durbin as the Nationals rolled past the Phillies by an 8-1 score in series game 2.

By splitting the 2 games, the Phils missed the 2nd opportunity in 3 games to cut into NL East-leading Atlanta’s 1st place lead. The Braves also split their 2 games with the Chicago Cubs.    The Phils remain 2 1/2 games behind the Braves.  The Phils remained 1 game ahead of the San Francisco Giants in the NL Wildcard race as the Giants split their 2 games with St. Louis. The third place  Florida Marlins moved to 9 1/2 games behind the Braves and 7 games behind the Phils by beating Houston twice.   The fourth place Mets also beat Pittsburgh twice and are 10 games back of the division leaders.

After having won 20 of 25 games up through their game 2 win over the Giants, the Phils have now scored a paltry 4 runs in 27 innings while losing 2 of their last 3 games.  The power outage comes at a crucial point as the 1st place Braves have shown themselves to be catchable.
But the Phillies have missed valuable opportunities to catch up. 

The best thing that can be said about the 2 games is the tenacity with which Halladay held on to the slender 1-0 lead for his 16th win on Friday and the support given in the final two innings by the Phils bullpen to close out the win.  Halladay won his 6th straight game and lowered an already low ERA even more to 2.16. 

After Halladay worked out of mild difficulties in each of the first through fourth innings, the defense gave him support in the seventh inning when he faced a 1 out, 1st and 2nd base situation.  3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman slammed a liner to leftfield which Ibanez caught and doubled-up shortstop Ian Desmond off of 2nd base on the play.  Desmond had attempted a steal of 3rd base when Zimmerman connected.  He was easy prey on Ibanez’s fine relay throw.  Madson and Lidge took care of the Nationals after that.

The Phils collected but 8 hits in the 2 games with the Nationals, and this with Utley and Howard back on the active roster and a full “regular” lineup on the field for one of the rare times this season. The Phils are darned lucky to have not lost both games.

Phillies hitters looked totally snake-bitten on Saturday despite Strasburg’s early departure.  The 5 Nationals pitchers struck out 10 Phillies and the 43 relievers held them to s total of 5 baserunners the rest of the way.  Kendrick was pounded for the 2nd time in 3 starts in an up-and-down season.  Durbin was roughed up, for the 1st time in almost a month, in the ninth inning.

One can view the AP game recaps on the 2 disappointing offensive performances here and here.

To view the scores of all of Friday’s and Saturday’s games, click here and  here.

The Phils look to wake up their offense in Sunday’s series final, Roy Oswalt is opposed by lefthander Scott Olsen for the Nationals.  On Monday, the  Houston Astros come to town for 4 games to finish up the Phils’ 10 game homestand.

To view the schedule of all of Sunday’s games, click here.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at 3:24 am and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary
Phillies and NL East, Analysis, Predictions, etc
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