Nats winning streak halted with 4-0 loss; Flores left with injured ankle
Not only did the Nationals lose the game, 4-0, ending their seven-game win streak, they lost catcher Jesus Flores with a sprained left ankle; for how long, we don't know. X-rays were negative and an MRI pending. After the game, the Nationals called up catcher Luke Montz from Triple-A Columbus.
Flores had to be carted off the field in the top of the third after a collision at the plate with Chase Utley. With two out, Utley on third and Jason Werth on first, John Lannan threw to first to keep Werth close.
As Lannan threw over, Utley broke for home. Ronnie Belliard fired to the plate and Flores blocked the dish perfectly, preventing Utley from scoring. Utley dove head first into Flores, trying to jar the ball loose. Flores' ankle got twisted under him and he immediately rolled around in pain.
Head trainer Lee Kuntz came out and wrapped Flores' left ankle and waited until the medical cart came to take him off the field.
As for the game, Washington blew a chance to score on Cole Hamels in the second. Belliard singled and advanced to third on Elijah Dukes ground-rule double.
Flores came up next and hit a broken bat liner to center. Dukes thought it would fall in for a hit and took off for third. Center fielder Shane Victorino raced in, made the sliding catch and fired to second to double up Dukes.
Next batter, Alberto Gonzalez had a chance to get one run home, but grounded out to second to end the inning.
The Phillies got to Lannan in the third after he retired the first six batters he faced. Pedro Feliz led off with a single and two-outs later, scored on Jimmy Rollins' single.
Rollins advanced to second when the throw from left fielder Willie Harris went to the plate. Utley followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0. After Werth singled and with Ryan Howard batting, Utley was out at the plate on the collision with Flores.
Lannan was virtually lights out after the third, giving up one hit and walking two. It will go down as another quality start for the young lefty, but he took the loss, the 13th of the year. Lannan was replaced with Levale Speigner to start the seventh
Speigner, making his season debut with the Nationals didn't fare to well. He allowed back-to-back singles to Feliz and Carlos Ruiz. Hamels moved the runners over with a ground out to third.
Rollins drove in a run with a single to right, making it a 3-0 game. Next batter, Utley grounded to second. Rollins, instead of running hard to second, stopped and forced Hernandez to throw to first for the force out, allowing the fourth Philadelphia run to score. Rollins was then out on a 4-3-6-1 put out.
Washington couldn't get much going against Hamels after the second. They had a runner in scoring position with two-out in the fifth, but Hernandez lined out to end the inning.
The Nationals best chance against the lefty came in the eighth. Hamels gave up a one-out walk, to pinch-hitter Aaron Boone, and a single, to Hernandez. Hamels was lifted for lefty specialist J.C. Romero. Romero struck out Harris for the second out. Chad Durbin came in to face Zimmerman and got him to ground into the 6-4 force out.
One bright spot for the Nationals was reliever Michael Hinckley making his MLB debut. Hinckley tossed 1 2/3 innings of scoreless ball and struck out two batters.
Back-up catcher Wil Nieves, who replaced Flores, told Debbi Taylor how he felt seeing his teammate down with the injury.
Postgame Notes
After the game, the Nationals selected catcher Luke Montz from Triple-A Columbus.
Washington had its season-best 7-game win streak snapped. The 7-game run was the second longest winning streak since the franchise relocated to the District in 2005. The longest win streak in Washington Nationals (2005-present) history was a franchise record-tying 10-game run, June 2-12, 2005.
With his double in the second inning, Ryan Zimmerman has now hit safely in his last eight games. H.he is batting .419 (13-for-31) with two doubles, two homers and six RBI in that span.
John Lannan posted his 19th quality start, allowing two runs in 6 innings. Despite a 2.08 ERA (28 ER/121.0 IP) in those quality starts, he owns a 7-6 record.
Since returning from the DL on August 27th, Elijah Dukes is batting .333 (8-for-24) with eight runs, three doubles, two homers, five walks and six RBI in seven games.
Mike Hinckley made his MLB debut, striking out two in 1 2.3innings of work.
Clubhouse Audio: Mike Hinckley on his Major League debut
Final Linescore
Phillies 4-8-0
Nationals 0-6-0
WP-Hamels (12-8)
LP-Lannan (8-13)
Pete McElroy's Live Gameblog
Phillies scoring, 7th inning
Leading 2-0 entering the inning, Philadelphia got consecutive singles from Pedro Feliz and Carlos Ruiz off reliever Levale Speigner. Cole Hamels faked a bunt attempt, pulled the bat back and hit a one-hopper to Ryan Zimmerman at third. Zimmerman, playing in, fielded the ball and threw to first, from his knees, for the out, but both runners moved up a base.
Jimmy Rollins followed with a single to score Feliz and give the Phillies the 3-0 lead. Chase Utley came up and grounded to second. Ruiz scored as Anderson Hernandez threw to first for the out. Rollins got into a rundown to make sure the run crossed the plate. He did his job and the Phillies lead 4-0.
Lannan's solid outing
Lannan has settled down since the two-run third inning. He's allowed one base hit since then and walked two, stranding all three runners. Lannan has nine ground ball outs to four fly ball outs. He was lifted to start the seventh due to his pitch count. Unfortunately for Lannan, a lack of run support will cost him a chance for a win and possible give him his 13th loss of the season.
6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K. 94 pitches, 58 strikes.
Flores injured
After Jason Werth's single put runners on the corners, Lannan threw to first to keep the runner close and Utley broke for home. Ronnie Belliard's throw beat Utley and he was out. Utley dove head first into Flores and Flores stayed down on the field and had be taken off on a cart.
From what I could see on replays, they were using bandaging on his left ankle. One of the Nationals coaches crossed his arms to indicate something was broken. Xray were negative and it's listed as an left ankle sprain.
Phillies scoring, 3rd inning
John Lannan had retired the side in order in the first and second innings. The third was a different story.
Pedro Feliz led off with a single and moved to third on a fielder's choice and a sac bunt. Jimmy Rollins singled to left to score Feliz and put the Phillies up 1-0. Willie Harris' throw from left field was on target, but Jesus Flores missed the one-hopper and Feliz slid home safe and Rollins moved to second on the throw. Chase Utley followed with an RBI single to score Rollins and the Nats trail 2-0.
Lannan thru 3 innings
Lannan retired the first six Phillies before allowing a lead-off single to Pedro Feliz. After a fielders choice and sac bunt, Lannan allowed three straight singles and the Phillies have a 2-0 lead. Only one of the nine outs is a fly ball out.
3 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 2 K. 47 pitches
Nats base running mistake
The Nationals ran themselves out of a big inning against Cole Hamels in the second.
Ronnie Belliard reached base with an infield single and Elijah Dukes hit a ground-rule double to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Next batter Jesus Flores hit a broken bat liner to shallow center. Dukes took off for third, but Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino chased it down and made a sliding catch and fired to second to double up Dukes. Alberto Gonzalez came up next and grounded out to end the inning.
Starting Line-ups
Phillies
SS Jimmy Rollins
2B Chase Utley
RF Jason Werth
1B Ryan Howard
LF Pat Burrell
CF Shane Victorino
3B Pedro Feliz
C Carlos Ruiz
P Cole Hamels
Nationals
2B Anderson Hernandez
LF Willie Harris
3B Ryan Zimmerman
CF Lastings Milledge
1B Ronnie Belliard
RF Elijah Dukes
C Jesus Flores
2B Alberto Gonzalez
P John Lannan
Game Preview
Philadelphia (75-63) at Nationals (53-85)
Washington found another way to keep their winning streak alive: getting clutch hits with runners in scoring position.
Yesterday, they went 4-9 with RISP and drove in five of the six runs. During their seven-game streak, the Nationals are hitting .361 (26-72) with runners on second or third.
With the win on Monday, the Nationals improved to 5-8 against the Phillies. During one stretch, Philadelphia won seven straight, but Washington has won the last two. Tim Redding, who picked up the win on Monday by tossing 5 2/3 innings of three-run ball, has three of the five wins against the Phillies this season. Saul Rivera has the other two.
Ryan Zimmerman's 2-run homer, in the fourth, extended his hitting streak to seven games. He's hitting .444 with two homers and six RBI over that span.
Tonight, John Lannan aims for his third consecutive victory. The Phillies send staff ace Cole Hamles to the bump as they look to get back to winning ways.
Pitching Match-Up
LHP John Lannan (8-12, 3.92), who has won his last two starts, had one of the worst outings of his career against the Phillies on July 31st.
Lannan gave up eight runs, six earned, on nine hits, three walks, a hit batter and a wild pitch in the Nationals 8-4 loss. The game wasn't as close as the score indicates. Philadelphia led 3-1 after two innings, 5-2 after four and 8-2 at the end of the sixth.
The young lefty gave up a lead-off home run to Jason Werth in the second. The next two batters reached base and an RBI groundout from Jimmy Rollins and an error by Ryan Zimmerman put Washington in a 3-0 hole.
After the Nationals made it a 3-2 game, Philadelphia got a 2-run homer from Rollins to make it 5-2 in the fourth. The Phillies chased Lannan with four consecutive hits, five including the one Charlie Manning surrendered in the sixth; three runners came around to score to make it 8-2.
In his career vs. Philadelphia, two starts, Lannan is 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA. He's allowed 10 earned runs in 10 innings.
Lannan, who had been hurt by a lack of run support most of the season, finally got a taste of what it's like to pitch with a big lead. Against the Dodgers last Thursday at Nationals Park, he gave up a 2-run homer to Manny Ramirez in the first, but the Nationals scored five in the bottom of the inning and cruised to the 11-2 victory.
Lannan, who has struggled at home this year, is making his 12th start at Nationals Park. He's 3-7 with a 5.93 ERA compared to a 5-5, 2.71 ERA on the road.
LHP Cole Hamels (11-8, 3.13) is undefeated in his last four starts. He's 2-0 with a 1.86 ERA. The two games he didn't win, he left with the lead, but the bullpen couldn't hold it and blew the game.
The ace of the Phillies staff is making his third start against the Nationals this season and he's dominated them in both games so far; but he doesn't have a win to show for his efforts.
In his most recent start against Washington on May 20th, Hamels tossed seven scoreless innings of four hit ball at Nationals Park. He struck out a season-high 11 batters, but Jason Bergmann matched him pitch for pitch. The Phillies scored a run in the ninth off Jon Rauch to win 1-0.
In his other start vs. the Nationals on April 2nd Hamels gave up one run on five hits in eight innings, but lost a 1-0 decision when Ryan Zimmerman took him deep in the sixth.
If there has been one Achilles heel for Hamels it's his propensity to give up the long ball. So far this year, he's allowed 24 round trippers in 195 2/3 innings. Last season, he served up 25 gopher balls in 183 1/3 and in 2006, 19 in 132 1/3 innings.
Hamels, who is making his 14th start on the road, is 5-2 with a 3.24 ERA outside of Philadelphia. In his career against Washington, he is 4-3 with a 2.25 ERA in 11 career starts.
Hamels will shut down the Nats tonight and eventually win the NL East.