WASHINGTON — By the time the Nationals put an end to it in the 12th inning Saturday night, it didn’t really matter.
Despite the 2-1 victory over the Phillies, the Nats were done when the Mets beat the Reds to sew up the NL East. So just like the Phillies, the Nationals were playing out the string by the game reached the 11th inning.
The fact that it lasted so long is a miracle. Starting pitchers Aaron Nola and Stephen Strasburg traded zeroes before turning it over to the bullpens. Nola was gone shortly after the game became official and Strasburg stuck around until the eighth when the Phillies knotted it up at 1.
Mercifully, the Nats wrapped it up with an RBI base hit from Bryce Harper with one out in the 12th.
Starting pitching report
Call it a brisk workout for Nola, who only threw 67 pitches in five scoreless innings. Nola allowed six hits without a walk and whiffed five. He also got six ground ball outs and danced out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the fourth inning with a whiff, line out and ground out.
Nola has pitched 77 2/3 in the big leagues this season, plus 109 1/3 innings in the minors for a career high. Though he could get one more start this season, the Phillies haven’t said if the rookie will go one more time.
MLB
Strasburg struck out 13, notching double digits for the fifth time this season and for the fourth start in a row. Two of those games were against the Phillies. He allowed a run on three hits in eight innings.
Bullpen report
Adam Loewen was charged with a run in the sixth on one-third of an inning of work. Loewen walked two batters and threw two wild pitches against the three hitters he faced.
Jeanmar Gomez finished up the sixth and threw a 1-2-3 seventh, as well. Luis Garcia came on in the eighth and negated a one-out double from Harper with a strikeout and ground out.
Hector Neris pitched a perfect ninth, setting it up for Jerome Williams, who allowed a hit and a walk over two innings.
Call-up Colton Murray retired the first hitter he faced in the 12th, but then permitted a single, walk and double to take the loss.
At the plate
Darin Ruf had the Phillies’ first two hits against Strasburg and scored in the eighth on Brian Bogusevic’s one-out double. Otherwise, hits and base runners were few and far between for the Phils.
The Phils had just four runners reach second base and none until the sixth inning.
Injury update
Ryan Howard, out since Sept. 14, was unavailable to pinch-hit Saturday and will likely return Wednesday in the game against the Mets at Citizens Bank Park.
Up next
The series concludes n Sunday when Aaron Harang (6-15, 4.93) takes on lefty Gio Gonzalez (11-8, 3.94). Harang is 1-2 with a 4.50 ERA in three starts against the Nationals this season and 4-7 with a 3.33 ERA in 16 career starts against them.
Gonzalez is 2-1 with a 1.83 ERA in three starts against the Phillies this season and 9-5 with a 2.99 ERA in 15 career starts. In his last outing against the Phils on Sept. 16, Gonzalez whiffed a season-high 12.