Phillies shut out Nationals, climb over .500
WASHINGTON - The catalyst of this Phillies team with its implausible winning record through 21 games grinned as he tugged on his Nikes after Wednesday night's 3-0 shutout of the imposing Nationals. This mishmash of flawed veterans and inexperienced youth without expectations is sparked by a Rule 5-pick centerfielder who is not supposed to be this polished.
WASHINGTON - The catalyst of this Phillies team with its implausible winning record through 21 games grinned as he tugged on his Nikes after Wednesday night's 3-0 shutout of the imposing Nationals. This mishmash of flawed veterans and inexperienced youth without expectations is sparked by a Rule 5-pick centerfielder who is not supposed to be this polished.
Not yet, not for Odubel Herrera. And not for this team.
"I feel like if I do a good job," Herrera said, "things start working for us."
The Phillies are 11-10. The last time the Phillies had a winning record this late into the season was May 4, 2014. It may not last for Pete Mackanin's bunch. It cannot last, right?
"I know we've been saying it and Pete has been preaching to us since Day 1 that he believes in us," said righthander Jeremy Hellickson, who tossed seven scoreless innings. "We all believe in each other."
Belief is limited in its reach on a baseball diamond. For these Phillies, the benefactors of exceptional pitching, sometimes a good piece of hitting that does not even result in a hit is enough.
Darin Ruf skied a sacrifice fly to deep center in the sixth to break a scoreless tie. The Phillies scored in the seventh on a bouncer to third that resulted in a Washington error. Carlos Ruiz, now a backup catcher, crushed his third homer of the season as the exclamation point.
It is hard to believe. The rebuilding Phillies, who looked overmatched less than two weeks ago against this Washington dynamo, have won the first two in this three-game road series.
"I've got a pretty good selection of pitchers that I feel comfortable with," Mackanin said. "That's the reason we're 11-10. The pitching's been outstanding."
Hellickson, now the tenured member of the rotation after Charlie Morton's season-ending hamstring tear, dazzled for seven innings. Hector Neris and Jeanmar Gomez, the unlikeliest of back-end bullpen duos, shut down the eighth and ninth innings.
The scoreless tie was broken in the sixth. It started, of course, with Herrera. He slashed a single up the middle to extend his on-base streak to 18 consecutive games. Freddy Galvis bunted him to second. Herrera danced there and dashed when Gio Gonzalez threw a wild pitch that did not bounce far from catcher Jose Lobaton. Herrera beat the inaccurate throw.
"We stress that," Mackanin said. "Look for a ball in the dirt, especially against a guy who throws a lot of breaking stuff. He did a great job."
Ruf, on this roster to mash lefties, appeared in a situation in which he had to succeed. With runners on the corners in a scoreless tie, he worked the count in his favor. He lashed a towering fly to center for a sacrifice fly. The Phillies entered the day with a .159 batting average and .549 OPS against lefthanded pitchers. Only the woeful Braves had a lower OPS.
Twelve days earlier, Washington bombarded Hellickson. He allowed four runs before he recorded his second out of the game at Citizens Bank Park. He lasted just three innings.
Hellickson was a different pitcher Wednesday. He does not often throw harder than 90 mph, but he struck out eight Nationals hitters. Hellickson, at age 29, has morphed into a strikeout pitcher. He has 28 of them in 26 innings this season. How?
"I have no idea," Hellickson said. "The curveball is a little better, but other than that I don't know."
Moments after Ruf's fly ball pushed the Phillies ahead, a small pocket of frozen fans seated in the upper deck of right field started a chant. "Let's go, Phillies!" they yelled. Gonzalez blurted a curse. Three innings later, the Phillies had a winning record.
@mattgelb