The Nationals lost to the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night by a score of 3 to 2 causing them to again fall below .500
Phillies starting pitcher Roy Halladay showed Wednesday night why he is the National League’s reigning Cy Young award winner. He turned in a complete game and for the first 8 innings completely outmatched the Nationals holding them to o runs and just 2 hits both of which were singles from Adam LaRoche.
It wasn’t until the 9th inning that he appeared to be in any danger when the Nationals managed to put together a small rally. It started with with a Rick Ankiel double who eventually scored on a single by Laynce Nix bringing the Nats within 2 runs. They scored again in the 9th on a single from Danny Espinosa that drove in Jayson Werth pulling the Nats within 1 with a man on first and a man on second and just 1 out.
But that was where the rally ended for the Nationals as Halladay struck out the next two batters he faced (Stairs and Rodriguez) ending the game on a very questionable third strike call against Ivan Rodriguez that replays showed to be a ball.
Of Halladay’s performance on the mound Nats first baseman Adam LaRoche said “He did what he always does, he’s around the zone, a ton of strikes. That being said, not a lot over the heart of the plate”.
Washington Nationals Manager Jim Riggleman also commented on Halladay saying “From where I was at, it looked like he had it all going. He could throw any pitch at any time”.
For the Nationals despite taking a loss starting pitcher John Lannan had a pretty solid performance. Lannan pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 runs only 2 of which were earned.