WASHINGTON _ When the Phillies arrived here Friday, Pete Mackanin glanced at the lineup card on his desk. He was incredulous. The Nationals slotted Anthony Rendon, a skilled and hot hitter, sixth. Then Mackanin scanned the names above Rendon's. Daniel Murphy fifth. Ryan Zimmerman fourth and Bryce Harper third.
"Are you kidding me?" Mackanin said.
The Phillies, after splitting Sunday's day-night doubleheader, have played more than a third of their games this season against the Nationals. No team boasts a more powerful offense than Washington. They have plans to play deep into October.
So 12 of the season's first 35 games against Washington represented a difficult task. The rebuilding Phillies provided stiff competition. They have won five and lost seven.
They launched a comeback Sunday to win the first game, 4-3, and dropped the seesaw second game, 6-5. Washington, a team that is 17-8 vs. everyone else, has struggled with the Phillies.
Ten of the 12 games between the two teams were separated by two or fewer runs. Five of them were decided on walk-off hits.
These two teams are not in the same class. Some of the soul-crushing losses on majestic Harper swings make the gap feel wider than it is. The Phillies, at least, have inched closer to a time when they can expect to not merely play Washington close, but beat them on a regular basis.
They were five outs from a Sunday sweep until Pat Neshek cracked for the first time in 2017. Neshek had started his Phillies career with 14 straight scoreless appearances. Then Michael A. Taylor blasted a hanging slider that whacked the foul pole for a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth inning of the nightcap.
So a three-month respite from the Nationals is welcomed.
"I don't think anybody likes to see a team that much," Mackanin said. "Nobody likes that. If you have a bad series or two against them home and away, that gives them the momentum and confidence.
"When you're facing teams of this caliber, like the Nationals, their offensive statistics are way above everybody else in baseball. So that wasn't a good draw on our part."
It was not. The wounds from Saturday night's ninth-inning loss bled into Sunday. The Phillies shuffled to the ninth inning of the first game, scoreless and trailing by three runs. Then they rallied for four runs on five hits, started by Aaron Altherr and capped by Ty Kelly, to secure their first win since last weekend.
"That was awesome," first baseman Tommy Joseph said.
The second game, a back-and-forth one, featured a trove of oddities. Max Scherzer was drilled on his left knee by a 100-mph liner, collapsed and rolled on the grass, then convinced his manager he could continue as fans chanted, "Let's go Scherzer!" An inning later, he struck out three Phillies on nine pitches.
The Phillies had a runner eliminated at home plate on a 6-5-2 putout. They hit two foul balls that were ruled outs in the seventh inning. Play was stopped to review a play that was somehow not reviewable, and venerable umpire Joe West wagged his finger at the Phillies dugout.
Although none of their starters were able to pitch longer than five innings, the Phillies held a lead in every game this weekend. A Phillies starter has failed to pitch six innings in 21 of 35 games this season. Jeremy Hellickson has made eight starts this season and four against Washington. That familiarity, he said, probably did not help.
"It's tough to trick a team four times," Hellickson said. "So it'll be nice to get away from them for a little bit."
These two teams will not meet again until after Labor Day, a four-game series in the second weekend of September. By then, the Nationals could have a grip on the National League East and the Phillies could be even younger. Or not.
The Phillies departed Nationals Park, though, having made a strong impression.
"It's nice to beat these guys," Mackanin said. "And they know we play them tough."
