Philadelphia Phillies Chip Away at Washington Nationals for Victory

Despite four GIDPs, the Philadelphia Phillies took Pat Corbin for 12 hits to win the series opener against the Washington Nationals.

Author:
Ben Silver
Sep 10, 2022 11:04 AM EDT

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Philadelphia Phillies

Edmundo Sosa might be the trade of the year for the Philadelphia Phillies. Dave Dombrowski is rightfully hailed as one of the best baseball executives of his era, and bringing Sosa to Philadelphia may have won the club yet another game this week.

Coming into Friday night's game, Sosa has reached base on six consecutive plate appearances, two of which were home runs.

The Phillies' third baseman's first at-bat was in the third inning. To that point, Philadelphia had only one hit facing Patrick Corbin, and that single by J.T. Realmuto was erased on a double play. Sosa, though, served notice that he carries the hottest bat in baseball with a triple off the wall in left-center field.

That brought Dalton Guthrie to the plate with the infield drawn in, and a lined shot over the head of second baseman Luis García fell for the youngster's first Major League hit and first RBI.

The Washington Nationals escaped the inning with a double play from Kyle Schwarber, the Phillies second of four GIDPs on the night.

Phillies starter Noah Syndergaard pitched well for six innings against a weak Nationals' lineup. Though Corbin and the Nationals managed to keep the game close, Washington never held a tie.

The Phillies widened their lead in the fourth with a solo home run from Rhys Hoskins. He was followed by Alec Bohm who missed a homer of his own by inches off the right-center field fencing.

Nevertheless, the steady bat of Realmuto drove him in before Jean Segura's third GIDP in his last three at-bats ended the Phillies' scoring threat.

Washington bats awoke in the third, coming a homer short of the cycle when Riley Adams doubled, followed by a triple from Lane Thomas and a single from Luis García, but the game's fourth double play turned by Segura on a hot liner finished the frame.

Trading insurance runs for the rest of the evening, Realmuto hit a sixth-inning bomb off Patrick Corbin while Alex Call hit a seventh-inning home run off Syndergaard to drive the Phillie starter from the game.

Syndergaard finished with 6.0 innings pitched, three runs allowed, two strikeouts and no walks on 86 pitches. Corbin had a similar line through 6.2 innings, throwing only 69 pitches.

The Phillies modus operandi for the night was 'swing early.' Working very few deep counts on the Washington starter, Philadelphia looked to keep him in the game as long as possible, and they succeeded. He surrendered five runs to the Phillies' offense on 12 hits, the last of which came on a swinging bunt single for Guthrie's second RBI of the game.

With the score 5-3 in the ninth, and two outs in the inning, it seemed like closer-for-the-evening, Brad Hand, would close things out calmly. It was not to be. Singles surrendered to Call and Ildemaro Vargas, brought Rob Thomson out from the dugout and Nick Nelson in from the bullpen to stop the bleeding.

With the hearts of Philadelphians beating a little faster than they should, Nelson threw only three pitches to induce a groundball out for the save, bringing the Phillies back 14 games over .500.

The two clubs will face off again Saturday at 6:05 p.m. EST with Ranger Suárez taking to the hill for Philadelphia, looking for a bounce-back start, while Eric Fedde will take the ball for Washington.