Streaking Phillies slip past Nationals
Jesmuel Valentin delivered the tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the seventh, and Carlos Santana homered an inning later as the visiting Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Washington Nationals 5-3 on Saturday afternoon at Nationals Park.
Valentin's sacrifice fly to center scored Maikel Franco and snapped a 2-2 tie. The play stood up under a long review after the Nationals challenged it.
Santana added his solo shot one inning later and has homered in both games of this series. Franco, who went 4-for-4 with two runs scored, added an RBI single later in that eighth inning for a 5-2 lead.
Odubel Herrera of Philadelphia saw his home run streak of five games come to an end. The center fielder went 0-for-4.
Phillies starter Aaron Nola (9-2) allowed two runs on four hits in six innings. He struck out five and walked three and threw just 83 pitches.
Seranthony Dominguez took care of the ninth for the Phillies and earned his fourth save. Philadelphia now has won three in a row and six of its last seven games.
Washington rookie starter Erick Fedde went deeper into the game to give the Nationals' tired bullpen a bit of a break. Fedde gave up three runs on eight hits in six-plus innings.
Fedde (0-3) left after giving up a leadoff double to Franco in the seventh, which started the rally that gave Philadelphia a 3-2 lead.
The Nationals took the lead in the first inning when Daniel Murphy got a two-run single. Anthony Rendon singled with two outs, and Juan Soto followed with a double before Murphy drove both in to go ahead 2-0.
Philadelphia tied the game with its own two-out rally in the second. Scott Kingery and Franco started things with back-to-back singles that put runners at first and second.
Jorge Alfaro and Nola then came up with back-to-back RBI singles that evened the score at 2-2. That was the pitcher's first RBI this season; he came into the game 1-for-28.
It was Nola's third career RBI.
After the Phillies scored three runs and took the 5-2 lead, Rendon added a solo homer in the eighth.
--Field Level Media
