*Photo from the Philadelphia Inquirer*
What a night for Spencer Howard. Howard got his first major league win, Rhys Hoskins drove in 3 runs, and the Philadelphia Phillies outslugged the Washington Nationals for an 8-6 victory, getting their 15th win of the season and getting to a .500 record, at 15-15.
The Phillies quickly started the scoring, when Hoskins launched a solo homer to left field to make it 1-0 Phillies. In the second inning, Jay Bruce doubled the lead with a solo homer to put the Phillies ahead 2-0. In the 4th inning, Jean Segura hit a three run double, and Alec Bohm hit a sac fly, putting the Phillies ahead 6-0. In the 5th, the Nats managed to get on the board with a Juan Soto two run homer to left field. In the 7th, Michael A Taylor and Trea Turner both hit solo homers for the Nats to make it 6-4, but Hoskins got those two runs back in the bottom of the 7th with a two run double, making it 8-4 Phillies. In the 9th, Soto hit a two run homer to make it 8-6, but the Phillies were able to hold it there to get the win.
Howard got the first win of his young career, throwing 5 innings. Howard allowed two runs on 5 hits and two walks, striking out 4 hitters. If the Phillies end up making the playoffs for the first time since 2011, Howard will be a big part of it. Howard said after the game that ''It was nice, tonight was the first time I felt synched up mechanically. My goal is to get better every day.''
The Phillies as a whole have won 6 of their last 7 games to climb up to a 15-15 record and second place in the NL East. Part of that is due to their offense producing in bunches, and Hoskins loves it. Hoskins said that ''Our offense is really starting to click, we have professional at-bats one through nine and that wears teams down.''
The Nationals lost their 3rd straight game, falling to a disappointing 12-20 on the season. In their last 10 games, they have gone just 3-7, and are last in the NL East. Nationals manager Dave Martinez wasn't thrilled, saying after the game that ''We're falling behind early in a game and playing catch-up, we've got to get some of these guys to understand the big innings kill us.''
This time it was Erick Fedde who took the loss for the Nationals. Fedde threw 6 innings, allowing 6 runs on 4 hits and one walk, striking out 4 hitters. His ERA rose to 4.71 on the season, and he is now just 1-3 on the season. Wander Suero and Sean Doolittle pitched in relief of Fedde, each throwing one inning. Suero allowed two runs on 3 hits, while Doolittle had a clean inning with two strikeouts.
The series continues Tuesday night, where both teams trot out some good starting pitchers, which makes every run come at a premium. The Nationals will try and break out of the funk when they send Patrick Corbin to the mound, while the Phillies counter with Aaron Nola.
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