Roark continues mastery of the Phillies in 8-0 shutout

Right-hander Tanner Roark demonstrated his ability to keep the Phillies guessing with seven strong innings in Saturday's 8-0 victory.

In his last three starts against Philadelphia, Roark has allowed only two runs over 21 innings. His ERA in those three games stands at 0.86.

He did a nice job of following catcher Wilson Ramos' lead, earning outs with his two-seam fastball, slider and curveball.

"Execution on (my pitches) and keeping the hitters guessing because I don't want to fall into a pattern with each hitter," Roark said. "We see the Phillies multiple times throughout the year, so you can't fall into a pattern with each and every single guy. You just got to go out there and four pitches for righties and four pitches for lefties."

Roark lasted seven shutout innings, scattering six hits with only one walk and seven strikeouts. This was Roark's fifth start this season where he didn't allow a run and the 14th of his career. He also has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 10 of his last 13 starts.

The signature moment arrived for Roark in the second inning in a scoreless game. Cody Asche started the inning with a single and Cameron Rupp wrapped a double to right field over Bryce Harper's outstretched glove.

The Phillies had two men in scoring position and no one out. Roark then defiantly struck out the side to end the threat. After allowing three early hits, the Phillies managed just three singles the rest of Roark's outing.

"That was a big confidence builder," Roark said of the potential second-inning Phillies rally. "Trying to go attack the guys, keep them off-balance, make them off-guard. That was the biggest thing, made my pitches, and Willy called it perfectly."

"He was strong," said manager Dusty Baker. "I think he only went three innings last time, so his pitch count wasn't that high. He was exceptionally sharp this time, except for that one inning that he had to get out of trouble. And he kept the ball down, his slider was good. He threw some quality pitches."

Roark had allowed five runs in just three innings last Sunday at Cincinnati. It marked the shortest outing of his season. The Nats rallied to win that game 10-9.

"Feels good. It wasn't just for me, it was for the team," Roark said. "We came out early and got runs on the board and had good defense behind us. When you get four runs early, it takes a lot of weight off your shoulders. You can ease in a little bit."

Roark also made a key contribution at the plate in the Nationals' four-hit, four-run second-inning outburst.

With men on first and third and a run in, Roark laid down a two-strike bunt that was fielded by Phillies first baseman Tommy Joseph. His scoop to the catcher was too late nab Anthony Rendon and the Nats scored again.

Roark said he was watching the sign from third base coach Bobby Henley to bunt.

"We switch it up every now and then," Roark said. "Dusty calls that from the dugout and Henley gives it to me, obviously. I missed on the curveball, tried to slash, missed it, and then bunt, got it down."

Was he feeling any extra pressure to bunt in a two-strike count?

"That's our job. We're not up there to hit home runs and base hits," Roark said. "That happens, but our main job is to get the guy over from second and luckily we got the run in."

Baker felt that bunt might have been the play of the game by Roark.

"When he got that two-strike bunt down, that kind of opened the gates for things," Baker said. "That shows you the importance of, especially pitchers, bunting.

"Because that's their number one job as a hitter, to get bunts down. And not only did he get the run in, got the bunt down, we didn't have to spend an out. I think the guys were probably more excited about that than anything."

First baseman Clint Robinson went 3-for-4 and scored a run. He said Roark's ability to mix his pitches up against an opponent all too familiar with his repertoire made the difference.

"It's really tough. We're gonna play the Mets a lot, we're gonna play the Phillies a lot, the Braves, all those teams, so for these guys to get in there and do their work in the video room and look back and see what mistakes they made, what they have success with, that's a really important part of the game that people don't always see," Robinson noted.

"It's not so much just, 'Oh, take the ball every fifth day and just go pitch.' It's a lot of work goes into those four days leading up to that start day. Really good job by these guys to have a plan of attack and go out there and execute it."