Phillies starter Roy Oswalt was again sharp on Sunday striking out 8  Nationals while winning his 3rd game in 5 starts, and his 2nd shutout in 3 starts, since being acquired from the Houston Astros at the end of July.  Rightfielder Raul Ibanez, 3rd baseman Placido Polanco and subbing 2nd baseman Wilson Valdez each drove in 2 run apiece with 4 of the runs scoring off of lefthander Scott Olsen.  Relievers Ryan Madson and J.C. Romero spelled Oswalt each going clean on Washington in the eighth and ninth innings as Oswalt was sharp, the offense provided support and the Phillies shut out the Nationals by a 6-0 score in their series final.

With the win, the Phils remained 2 1/2 games behind NL East-leading  Atlanta after missing a 2nd opportunity in 3 games to cut into the Braves’ 1st place lead on Saturday. The Braves pummelled the Chicago Cubs.  The Phils increased their Wildcard lead to 2 games over the San Francisco Giants who were pounded and shut out by St. Louis. The third place Florida Marlins dropped to 10 1/2 games behind the Braves and 8 games behind the Phils after being edged by Houston.   The fourth place Mets were also edged by Pittsburgh and are now 11 games back of the division leaders.

Although Washington had a man reach in six of Oswalt’s seven innings, that is all Oswalt allowed.  He struck out 8 while walking 1 and not only was sharp on the mound, but was slick with the stick going 2 for 3 as well.  He led off the third inning with a single to rightfield.  With 2 outs and Oswalt on 2nd after advancing on a ground out to the pitcher, he scored on Polanco’s single to centerfield to put the Phils up 2-0.  He also singled leading off the fifth but was rubbed out on a doubleplay. 

Willie Valdez, subbing for regular 2nd baseman Chase Utley, who was rested due to the current stretch where the Phils play 24 games in 23 days, drove in 2 runs in the sixth inning with a single to shallow centerfield.  4 of the 6 Phillies runs came off of Olsen. 

Leftfielder Raul Ibanez put icing on the cake in the seventh inning following shortstop Jimmy Rollins’ leadoff single with a 2 run homer off of Nationals reliever Craig Stammen.

Oswalt left after seven innings with Madson and Romero putting the lights out on the Nationals the rest of the way retiring the last 6 Nationals they faced.

For more on the game highlights, click here for the AP game recap for Yahoo.

Note however, that Ryan Howard did not rest in this one as the AP rewcap indicates.  Rather, he went 1 for 4 singling with 1 out in the sixth inning.  He was, however, wiped out on a rightfielder Jayson Werth’s fielder’s choice grounder.   Therefore, Werth and centerfielder Shane Victorino, who followed with a double, scored on Valdez’s 2 run single. 
 
To view the scores of all of Sunday’s games, click here.

On Monday, the Houston Astros come to town for 4 games to finish up the Phils’ 10 game homestand.  Joe Blanton opposes former Phil Brett Myers in the series opener.

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

Add to:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. | del.icio.us | digg | Furl | Reddit | YahooMyWeb |

This entry was posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 3:38 am and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary
Phillies and NL East, Analysis, Predictions, etc
2010 Phillies Highlights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.