WASHINGTON _ A few hours before the start of Friday night's game, in the quiet of an empty ballpark in the nation's capital, Phillies manager Gabe Kapler mentioned the "challenge" posed to his young team by playing seven games over the next 10 days against the two-time defending National League East champions.
Challenge accepted.
The Phillies kicked off the most difficult week-and-a-half of their season with an eruption of offense in a 12-2 victory over the Washington Nationals. Every non-pitcher in the lineup reached base at least once. Odubel Herrera notched four hits and tied a club record by homering in his fifth consecutive game. And for a change, Kapler's closer-less bullpen didn't have to sweat out the final six outs of a game.
The Phillies won for the eighth time in 11 games and inched into sole possession of second place in the NL East, a half-game ahead of the underachieving Nationals.
Herrera continued his onslaught of opposing pitchers. He singled and scored in the first inning, then broke a 2-2 tie by taking Nationals starter Tanner Roark deep into the right-field bullpen for a two-run homer in the third. He singled in the fifth against reliever Matt Grace and again in the eighth against lefty Sammy Solis.
After slumping for about three weeks, Herrera is on a 17-for-36 tear. He's the sixth Phillies player to homer in five games in a row, joining teammate Rhys Hoskins last year, Chase Utley (two streaks in 2008), Bobby Abreu (2005), Mike Schmidt (1979) and Dick Allen (1969).
But Herrera wasn't alone in pounding the Nationals. The Phillies made Roark throw 29 pitches in the first inning and only kept their foot on the pedal. Roark threw a whopping 113 pitches in a 41/3-inning slog. And with the Nationals scheduled to send rookies Erick Fedde and Jefry Rodriguez to the mound over the next two games, the last thing manager Dave Martinez wanted to do was ask his bullpen to get 14 outs in the series-opener.
Carlos Santana, who leads all NL players with a combined 54 extra-base hits and walks since May 1, swatted a two-run homer in the sixth inning. Andrew Knapp went deep in the ninth. Leadoff man Cesar Hernandez went 2-for-4 with a walk. Right fielder Nick Williams drove in three runs.
Between them, Hernandez, Herrera, Santana and Williams accounted for 11 of the Phillies' 15 hits.
Kapler didn't expect this. Not even with the Phillies lucking into not having to face Nationals ace Max Scherzer or tough lefty Gio Gonzalez, who started the previous two games against the Baltimore Orioles. Asked how he regarded this three-game series _ the beginning of a 10-game stretch in which the Phillies will face the Nationals, the New York Yankees and the Nationals again _ Kapler kept coming back to one word.
"As a really challenging one," Kapler said. "I've spent the last 24-48 hours really looking into (the Nationals') roster and taking a close look at (rookie slugger Juan) Soto, who's a really, really good player. Despite (Bryce) Harper's struggles with batting average, his ability to slug and hit homers is still there and get on base. There's so many guys to game plan for. And such a really strong bullpen. I think it's a good club, and it's a challenge. That's the way I'm looking at it."
There's another way to look at these games. If, 10 days from now, the upstart Phillies are still in the thick of both the NL East and wild-card races, they will have proved to the front office that they are worthy of receiving roster reinforcements at the trade deadline.
A few days ago, general manager Matt Klentak said he's open to acquiring even short-term help in the form of a free-agent-to-be. But before Klentak takes that plunge, be it for Orioles star Manny Machado or Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre or any other rent-a-player, he said he wants to see where the Phillies stand after this month.
"We have to evaluate our team and figure out where we are heading into the month of July, come out of the all-star break and make the most informed decisions that we can," Klentak said. "The performance of the team will dictate our direction.
Sounds like another challenge, doesn't it?
So far, the Phillies are meeting it.
