Phillies lose to Nationals on Bryce Harper's walk-off homer
Joaquin Benoit threw the Washington star a 97-mph fastball. It went out in a hurry.
WASHINGTON - The Phillies and Nationals played six times in the season's first two weeks. Four of the games were decided by two runs or fewer. Three were sealed by walk-off hits. The gap between a rebuilding club and a contending one, for now, does not look as wide as it did a season ago when Washington pulverized the Phillies 13 times in the span of 14 games.
"We're just competing," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said Sunday, moments after his team suffered a demoralizing 6-4 defeat. "A lot has to do with the pitching."
But one notable fact has not changed: The Nationals have a Bryce Harper and the Phillies do not.
Harper batted with a full count and two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Phillies closer Joaquin Benoit threw the superstar a 97-mph fastball over the plate. Harper destroyed it.
His dramatic three-run homer won a back-and-forth game and soured the Phillies' train ride to New York. Harper accounted for five Washington runs with two majestic swings. He has crushed 15 home runs against the Phillies since the start of the 2015 season.
Mackanin shook his head afterward. There were many things for him to like. Cesar Hernandez cracked his first career home run against a lefthanded pitcher and reached base four times. A slumping Tommy Joseph tied the game with a single and Aaron Altherr began the ninth with a clutch double. Jerad Eickhoff again pitched six innings to keep the Phillies close.
It still resulted in a loss.
"We had timely hits when we needed them to tie the game up and then go ahead," Mackanin said. "But we just couldn't hold the lead in the ninth inning."
For the second time in three days, a Phillies reliever tempted danger by walking Chris Heisey, a Nationals reserve with a career .300 on-base percentage. Adam Eaton singled to left on a first-pitch fastball. Trouble loomed, with Anthony Rendon, Harper and Daniel Murphy next.
"The thing that got Harper up to the plate was the walk to Heisey," Mackanin said. "That was the thing. Walks seem to score when we issue them."
Rendon lined out to right. Mackanin marched to the mound. He wanted to know how Benoit would approach Harper; that would control how the Phillies positioned their shift. After the loss, Mackanin offered a thought experiment.
"Let's say they stole second and third, which they wouldn't want to do," Mackanin said. "But if they did, do you put Harper on to face Murphy? That's another way to give up a run, with a walk. So those two guys, back to back, they're tough. I don't like to see either one of them come up. You have to make real good pitches."
Benoit had faced Harper five times and beaten him five times, including twice earlier this season. He had attacked Harper before with fastballs, so he stuck with that strategy Sunday. Harper fouled off the first two pitches and fell into an 0-2 hole.
The 39-year-old Dominican countered with a change-up in the dirt. Harper took it. He watched the next two fastballs, both high, for balls. The count was full, a fastball count. Benoit's best pitch is his fastball.
"I don't like to second-guess myself," Benoit said. "If something happens, I take full responsibility. I wanted to throw a fastball. I threw it. He hit it out."
Harper homered in the third inning to push the Nationals ahead, 3-1. Eickhoff was inches from escaping the inning without seeing Harper; a replay review showed Rendon had just edged an infield single to prolong the inning. The review lasted 1 minute, 40 seconds. Eickhoff and his catcher, Cameron Rupp, decided during the break that they would throw Harper a first-pitch slider.
"Going into the game, I didn't think I had my best stuff," Eickhoff said, "But I wouldn't take the pitch back. I wouldn't change a thing."
The pitch, Eickhoff said, missed its intended location by "inches." Harper deposited it into the right-field stands for a two-run homer.
"He's a tough out," Eickhoff said. "He fouls off good pitches. And he's ready for mistakes. . . . You have to be careful with him."
The Phillies and Nationals are teams with disparate goals in 2017. They have championship aspirations here, and a team that wants to win must bully its lesser opponents. On Sunday, Harper did just that.
@MattGelb