Phillies get to Strasburg early, Nats rally for 9-6 victory

The Phillies grabbed the early lead in the second inning against Stephen Strasburg.

Cody Asche's RBI single scored Carlos Ruiz. Tyler Goeddel added a bunt single that plated Freddy Galvis and the Phillies jumped out to a 2-0 advantage.

In the third, Tommy Joseph homered to left-center with a man on and suddenly it was 4-0 Phillies.

The Nationals answered in their half of the third.

Jayson Werth's sharp line drive turned into a double to left field, scoring Danny Espinosa and Ben Revere, cutting the Phillies' lead to 4-2.

After three innings, the Phillies lead the Nats 4-2.

Update: With one out in the fourth, Wilson Ramos and Stephen Drew lofted back-to-back solo homers off of Phillies starter Jeremy Hellickson to tie the game at 4-4. It was the eighth time this season the Nationals had hit back-to-back home runs.

After four innings, the Nationals and Phillies are even at 4-4.

Update II: Daniel Murphy doubled to right in the fifth inning, scoring Revere and Bryce Harper. The Nationals lead 6-4 after five and a half innings.

Update III: Espinosa crushed a solo homer to right field in the sixth, his 10th of the season. The Nationals lead 7-4. It's the fourth time in his career he has reached double-digit homers in a season. He is also 3-for-3 on the night.

Strasburg has struck out 10 Phillies through seven innings. It's the 28th time in his career he has reached 10 strikeouts in a game and the seventh time this season.

Six and a half innings done in D.C., the Nationals lead 7-4 over the Phillies.

Update IV: Murphy added to his night with another run-scoring double, plating Werth in the seventh, and the Nationals have scored eight unanswered runs to lead 8-4.

Drew tallied a RBI double to make it 9-4. He has a double, a homer and two RBIs.

Murphy has two doubles and three RBIs.

The Nats have scored in every inning from the third through the seventh and have 31 runs in their last four games, plus 25 runs in their last four contests against the Phillies.

Strasburg finished seven innings, allowing four runs and five hits with one walk and 10 strikeouts. He tossed 104 pitches, 73 for strikes.

Update V: Joseph added another two-run shot in the eighth, his second homer of the game, this time off of Felipe Rivero, and the Nats lead was trimmed to 9-6. Rivero has allowed multiple runs in three of his last four outings.

Update VI: Jonathan Papelbon notched his 16th save in 18 attempts. In the ninth, Goeddel walked with two outs. But Papelbon was able to induce a grounder back to the mound to finish the game.

Strasburg is now 10-0.

Final score: Nationals 9, Phillies 6.