Recap: Philadelphia vs. Washington
Sports Network | September 26, 2008
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Ryan Howard homered and drove in four runs, as the Philadelphia Phillies doubled up the Washington Nationals, 8-4, in the opener of a three-game series from a damp Citizens Bank Park.
Chase Utley finished 3-for-4 with three RBI and three runs scored for the Phillies, who snapped a two-game skid and hold a 1 1/2 game lead over New York in the NL East standings. The Mets are hosting Florida on Friday. Jayson Werth registered two hits and scored twice, while Jimmy Rollins walked three times and scored a run.
Joe Blanton (4-0) gave up four runs -- one earned -- on five hits and a walk in six innings of work, with two strikeouts, to get the win.
Cristian Guzman had two hits and knocked in a run for the Nationals, who have dropped seven of their last eight games. Collin Balester (3-7) was rocked for seven runs on seven hits in just 1 2/3 innings. Five relievers combined to limit the Phillies to one unearned run and three hits in 6 1/3 frames.
Howard's major league-leading 48th home run of the season staked Philadelphia to a 3-0 lead in the opening frame. After Rollins flied out to begin the inning, Werth and Utley stroked consecutive singles before Howard, making a strong push for a second NL MVP award, launched an 0-1 pitch over the center- field fence and into the Phils' bullpen.
Washington got on the board in the second. Elijah Dukes drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a passed ball and later scored on Luke Montz's two-out single. The Phillies, though, put four more runs on the board in the bottom of the second.
Greg Dobbs led off by slicing a double down the left field line and Rollins worked a key two-out walk. Werth hit a groundball to deep third that he legged out for an infield single, loading the bases for Utley, who smacked a three- run double off the top of the wall in left. Howard followed with an RBI double for a 7-1 Phillies advantage.
The Nationals scored a pair of runs in the fifth to narrow the deficit to four. With one away, Pete Orr reached first on Howard's fielding error and Roger Bernadina doubled before Emilio Bonifacio hit a sacrifice fly and Guzman lined a run-scoring single to right. Kory Casto's two-out blast in the sixth made it a 7-4 game.
Utley slapped a single off Mike Hinckley to start the seventh, swiped second, advanced to third on a fielder's choice and scored on a passed ball to round out the scoring.
Howard, who won the NL MVP award in 2006, leads the majors with 146 RBI...Howard has a team-record 32 RBI in the month of September, breaking Gary Matthews' mark of 31, set in 1981...The Phillies reached 90 wins for the 12th time in franchise history and for the first time since winning the NL pennant in 1993 (97-65)...The Phils are 10-6 against the Nationals in 2008...Washington's John Lannan (9-14) and Philadelphia's Jamie Moyer (15-7) are slated to start on Saturday.
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