WASHINGTON – With all that’s been on the local sporting plate in recent weeks, from the changes in Sixers’ front office, to Villanova's winning it all, to the Flyers' making the playoffs then bowing out, to the Eagles' wheeling and dealing en route to picking a quarterback in the draft Thursday night, it’s been easy to forget about the boys that play in Citizens Bank Park.
But nearly a month into the new season, the Phillies are becoming difficult to ignore.
Frankly, this rebuilding team is becoming a pretty good story.
Buyers in July?
OK, not that good.
But these guys are interesting and often fun to watch.
They wrote their latest compelling episode Thursday in the nation’s capital when they rallied for three runs in the top of the ninth inning to complete a three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals with a 3-0 victory (see Instant Replay).
The Nationals entered the series on Tuesday with the best record in the majors at 14-4, but the Phillies held them to three runs in the series and shut them out behind Jeremy Hellickson, Aaron Nola and a number of other clutch performances the last two nights.
Phillies pitching did not allow a run in the final 22 innings of the series.
The sweep gave the Phils a 5-1 road trip, six wins in their last seven games and a 12-10 season record.
It’s the first time the Phils have been two games over .500 since the final days of the 2012 season.
“You’ve got to hand it to the pitching,” manager Pete Mackanin said. “I can’t say enough about it. It’s the reason we’ve won games.
“If our pitching continues to do what it’s doing we’ll be in a lot of games.”
Catcher Cameron Rupp had the big hit Thursday, a two-run double with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth inning of a scoreless game.
Oh, yeah, the hit, which doubled Rupp’s meager season RBI total, came against Jonathan Papelbon, who continues to get beat up by his former teammates.
Sweet?
“Absolutely,” Rupp said. “It’s always sweet, especially sweeping these guys in your division.
“You know, a lot of people write us off, saying we don’t want to win. That’s not true. I mean, we come out here to play. We have fun. It shows. We’ve won close games. We haven’t really out-slugged anyone yet, but that’s coming.
“I think if we come out and keep playing the way we are — we’re surprising a lot of people already and we’re going to continue to do so.”
Rupp’s decisive hit was followed by an RBI infield hit by David Lough.
Jeanmar Gomez notched his seventh save in the bottom of the inning.
There were a slew of big plays in this game.
You have to start with starting pitching. Nola pitched seven scoreless innings as the Phillies' starting staff lowered its season ERA to 3.43. Nola always has a good curveball, but the one he featured in this game was wicked. It was sharp and biting. He struck out seven, all on curveballs. The Nats’ hitters knew it was coming and still couldn’t hit it.
Nola gave up just two hits and walked one. The walk came with one out in the sixth. Two batters later, the right-hander faced his most pivotal confrontation in the game when the lethal Bryce Harper came to the plate with a runner on second in a scoreless game.
Two nights earlier, Mackanin had Vince Velasquez intentionally walk Harper in the third inning with a man on second. But there are different rules for different pitchers. Mackanin let Nola go at Harper. Nola threw a first-pitch sinker and Harper grounded out to second. He slammed his helmet to the ground as he crossed first base.
“We can’t walk the guy every time,” Mackanin said. “Somebody has got to be able to get him out. It’s a nothing-to-nothing game, middle of the game, I’m not going to walk him. Eighth inning, maybe different. Possibly with a different pitcher. But Nola locates his pitches so well. I want to give our pitcher credit to get good hitters out. That to me was an indication that I have a lot of confidence in Nola to locate pitches and if he makes pitches he can get him out.”
Nola left after seven innings and 77 pitches because the Phillies did nothing against Nats starter Tanner Roark and Mackanin rolled the dice on a pinch-hitter.
The Nats threatened in a big way in the bottom of the eighth, but lefty reliever Elvis Araujo struck out Harper on three pitches with the bases loaded to end that inning. Clutch.
The ninth was wild. Odubel Herrera singled against Felipe Rivero in a scoreless game then moved to third when Freddy Galvis doubled after twice failing to get a bunt down. Papelbon came on with the bases loaded and had Rupp 0-2 before Rupp worked the count to 2-2. He got a high fastball and drove it over Harper’s head in right for two runs.
“Big hit,” said Mackanin.
Big win.
Big sweep.
Big road trip.
Who knows how long it will last, what with the sporadic offense and all, but 22 games into the season these Phillies are a pretty good story.