Phillies top Nationals in home run derby (updated)

PHILADELPHIA - There was no bullpen meltdown tonight, no wild back-and-forth ballgame featuring all kinds of twists and turns. No, the Nationals' first game of the season at Citizens Bank Park featured quality pitching done in solely by five fly balls that reached the bleachers in this hitter-friendly facility.

The Phillies' 4-3 victory was rather ho-hum, at least in comparison to just about every other game the Nationals have played so far in 2019, all of them against two division rivals.

It still counts as a loss in the ultra-competitive National League East standings, though, and so the Nats now find themselves back under .500 at 4-5 with two games to go in this meat grinder opening act to their schedule.

"We keep playing like that," manager Davey Martinez said, "I really believe we're going to win a lot of games."

The Nationals got an early two-run homer from Kurt Suzuki, but that's all they got against Vince Velasquez until Brian Dozier's leadoff homer in the ninth. The Phillies, meanwhile, got two homers off otherwise effective starter Aníbal Sánchez, then a tack-on homer off Justin Miller in the bottom of the eighth that proved the difference.

The ninth inning did turn more dramatic than the relatively tame crowd of 28,212 would have preferred. After Dozier led off with a 410-foot blast to center off Pat Neshek, Anthony Rendon doubled down the left field line. Juan Soto sliced a line drive to left that was caught by Andrew McCutchen for the first out, then Ryan Zimmerman grounded out to second. With the tying runner 90 feet away, Suzuki flied out to right to end the game.

"It's just one of those days where we're hitting the ball hard, on the ground or in the air, but it doesn't seem like it's in the right spot," Suzuki said. "That's the way baseball goes. Neshek's been around for a while, he's worked in those situations. You tip your hat. He did a good job getting himself out of that situation."

The silver lining on this night: Nationals pitchers shut down Bryce Harper for the first time in three tries. The slugger went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a four-pitch walk against Sánchez and lefty Tony Sipp.

Both teams relied on the long ball to generate early offense. The Nationals got theirs from Suzuki, who drilled a hanging slider from Velasquez for a two-run homer in the top of the second. The Phillies got theirs from Odúbel Herrera, who pounced on a first-pitch fastball by Sánchez for his own two-run blast in the bottom of the fourth.

Those were the exceptions, though, especially for the Phillies lineup, which had all kinds of trouble figuring out Sánchez's wide-ranging repertoire.

Sánchez put together some masterful sequences. He pitched around Harper in the bottom of the first and then struck out Rhys Hoskins and J.T. Realmuto to escape the jam. Two innings later, he got Harper out in front of a couple of offspeed pitches, then "blew" him away with a high fastball that registered only 87 mph but must've looked like 97 mph.

"Aníbal is very smart. He doesn't give in," Martinez said. "The biggest thing is he doesn't give in, and he's always around the plate. He has a gameplan when he's out there pitching, and he sticks to that gameplan."

All the smart sequencing in the world, though, can't make up for a couple of poorly executed pitches to big hitters. And so when Sánchez didn't execute a 3-2 curveball to Hoskins in the sixth, the Phillies cleanup man cleaned up. His solo homer to left gave his team the lead and left the Nationals needing to mount a late rally.

"That's baseball," Sánchez said. "Everything can change by a pitch."

The Nationals might have taken their own 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to a two-out rally that included a Zimmerman single and then a Suzuki base hit to right-center. Running on the full-count pitch, a huffing-and-puffing Zimmerman was waved around third by Bob Henley. Harper, who actually missed his cutoff man, still left shortstop Jean Segura with enough time to make a simple throw to the plate to nail Zimmerman by two steps.

The rationale for Henley waving Zimmerman around: The Phillies likely would have intentionally walked Wilmer Difo and loaded the bases for Sánchez. Perhaps the Nationals never would've scored under that scenario, but they didn't score under the actual scenario, either.

"If it's a double, they walk Difo and we've got Sánchez hitting," Martinez said. "I thought Bobby did a great job trying to send him there."