Ben Revere turned his season around when came off the bench and made three base running plays to score the go-ahead run as the Phillies snapped a six game losing streak against the Nats, earning them their first road win of the season.
Revere entered the game with one aim in mind as a pinch-runner following a walk to Ryan Howard.
Chase Utley has also showed signs of improvement recently, making the defensive play of the game with a diving play up the middle to send Zimmerman to the bench for the final out. Not only did he close but also clutched.. there was a runner on second at the time so if the ball had escaped his clutches, the Nats would have scored a tying run. Utley stopped it with authority as the Phillies continue to claw and scratch their way through the season.
Aaron Harang continued to rise his popularity level in Philly, pitching six innings and allowing just seven hits and three runs. Striking out six and sending two walks he was switched for a Pinch in the seventh. Impressively, Harang has pitched at least six innings in all of his starts in a Phils jersey. He has allowed zero, one and three runs, in those games…not bad right?
Luis Garcia pitched a scoreless seventh and Ken Giles did the same an inning later. With a rare lead this late on, the Phils capitalised and stretched out the arms in the Bullpen..it worked beautifully. Jonathan Papelbon responded to his critics by nailing his first save chance in a week.
Despite the five runs however, The Phils had just seven hits in the game with Herrera and Galvis accounting for five of them. Revere doubled and scored the insurance run late on following the exciting Odubel Herrera’s third hit. It really was a case of quality over quantity tonight and somehow it paid off beautifully.
The only real negative is Howards unbelievable decline. Ryan continues to bat seventh and was hitless in his first two at-bats.
Positive finish though, the Phils are back to winning ways as they seek to defeat the odds and have a mildly successful season. With fans lacking optimism, performances like this won’t go unnoticed and definitely start to build some hype. The two teams face one more time on Sunday afternoon to close the series.
