If you’re a connoisseur of the pitcher-hitter battle, the age-old test of wit and skill, then the four-hour showdown between the Phillies and Nationals on Tuesday night in Washington was akin to gazing at a Picasso.
But if clutch hitting is your thing, well, let’s just say you wouldn’t want the game film sent to Cooperstown.
Twelve pitchers combined to throw 370 pitches, 73 of which were fouled off. There were two 14-pitch at-bats and one that lasted 11 pitches.
But it wasn’t until Andrew Knapp came up in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter for Phillies star catcher J.T. Realmuto -- who took a foul ball off the left knee above the shin guard one inning earlier -- and stroked a two-run single, that either team had a truly big hit with a runner in scoring position. Knapp turned a tense two-run lead into a 6-2 victory at Nationals Park, the Phillies’ sixth win in eight games.
The Phillies finished with nine hits and eight walks and had the side retired in order only twice. The Nationals had seven hits and four walks and went down 1-2-3 twice. But the Phillies were 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position, the Nationals 1-for-6. The teams combined to leave 22 men on base.
With the Phillies leading 3-0, Jean Segura waged a 14-pitch at-bat against Nationals reliever Will Harris but lined out to center field to end a sixth inning in which Phillies manager Joe Girardi allowed starter Chase Anderson to bat with the bases loaded and nobody out. The Phillies could’ve broken open the game. Instead, they didn’t score.
The Nationals cut the margin to 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth when Kyle Schwarber capped an 11-pitch at-bat with an RBI single against reliever Sam Coonrod. One inning later, Trea Turner drew a 14-pitch two-out walk against lefty reliever Jose Alvarado, who walked Juan Soto on four pitches before regrouping to strike out Josh Bell with the bases loaded.
Indeed, there were missed opportunities everywhere until the Phillies’ big eighth inning. Odúbel Herrera, who picked up two hits and reached base four times, and Alec Bohm notched back-to-back doubles to stretch the margin to 4-2 before Andrew McCutchen and Bryce Harper walked and Knapp delivered his big hit.
Anderson sailed through five innings in what qualified as his best start yet for the Phillies. After giving up back-to-back singles to Turner and Soto in the first inning, he retired 15 of the next 16 batters. Only Schwarber reached base when Anderson hit him with a pitch with one out in the fourth.
When Anderson walked off the mound after the fifth inning, he had thrown only 79 pitches. But he was due up fourth in the top of the sixth. He also had thrown exactly one pitch in the sixth inning in his previous six starts.
But Girardi stuck with him after the Phillies loaded the bases on an error, an infield hit, and a walk. Anderson lined out to left field before McCutchen struck out and Segura fouled off eight two-strike pitches before lining out.
It seemed Girardi’s decision would prove costly when Anderson allowed a solo homer by Turner and walked Soto to open the bottom of the sixth. Girardi called on Coonrod, who lost a duel with Schwarber but held the lead.
After back-to-back losses over the weekend in Atlanta, the Phillies got their first day off in 2 1/2 weeks. But if they stewed Monday in Washington, they came out fast against Nationals starter Erick Fedde.
Harper, who played with Fedde at Las Vegas High School in 2009, teed off on a cutter and smashed it off the facade of the second deck in right field for a 1-0 lead. It marked his third home run in 12 career at-bats against Fedde and his fifth in 17 games at his former home ballpark since leaving the Nationals.
The Phillies tacked on a run in the third inning when Harper drew a walk, went to second on Brad Miller’s two-out single, and scored on a single by Rhys Hoskins. And they manufactured a run in the fourth on Herrera’s double, a sacrifice bunt by Anderson, and McCutchen’s sacrifice fly.
But if the Phillies were opportunistic against Fedde, they squandered several chances against the Nationals’ bullpen. They loaded the bases with nobody out in the sixth inning and didn’t score. Realmuto and Miller drew back-to-back one-out walks in the seventh and neither scored.
