Washington Nationals: Roark Continues Dominance Of Phillies

The Washington Nationals shut out the Phillies this afternoon as Tanner Roark threw seven strong innings in the win.

This afternoon, the Washington Nationals (38-24) continued their trend of good offense as they defeated the Philadelphia Phillies (29-33) by a final score of 8-0. The Nats have now scored eight runs or more in five of their last six games. Plus, Roark was able to throw seven shutout innings against the Phillies for the second time this year.

On a day where Jayson Werth, Ryan Zimmerman, and Danny Espinosa were given the day off, the bench trio of Michael Taylor, Clint Robinson, and Stephen Drew went 7-for-11 with three RBI’s, including three-hit games by Taylor and Robinson. Eight of the nine players in the Nats’ lineup had at least one hit in the win.

The scoring started in the second inning when the Nats put four runs on the board. Wilson Ramos was hit by a pitch and Robinson singled to center to begin the inning against Aaron Nola. Two batters later, Drew singled to right to put Washington up 1-0. Then, Roark laid down a squeeze bunt to score Robinson. Later in the inning, Taylor and Bryce Harper each had RBI singles to double the lead to 4-0.

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Today, the Washington Nationals offense was able to get to Nola right away and end his outing early. The Phillies’ right-hander went 3.2 innings, gave up four runs on seven hits, struck out three, and walked one on 82 pitches in the loss.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Nats tacked on three more runs. With two on and one out, Anthony Rendon hit a double down the left field that drove in Murphy and Robinson. Rendon would come around to score on a sacrifice fly by Drew.

The final Washington Nationals run of the day came in the eighth inning when Ben Revere hit a single to center to drive in Chris Heisey. Heisey doubled in his lone at-bat of the game, but Drew was thrown out at home plate trying to score.

As for Roark, he was able to work out of trouble early and shut down the Phillies offense. In the second, Philadelphia had second and third with no one out, but Roark battled and struck out the next three hitters swinging to end the inning. He went seven innings, gave up six hits, struck out seven, and walked one on 105 pitches (68 strikes) in the win.

This season, Roark has been able to shut down the Phillies offense. In three starts against Philadelphia, he is 2-0 and has given up only two runs in 21 innings. After Roark, Sammy Solis and Blake Treinen combined to give up one hit and struck out three over the final two innings.

Next: Reaction: Strasburg Shows How Valuable He Is To Nats

Next Game: The Washington Nationals will go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon against the Philadelphia Phillies. You can watch the game on MASN2 at 4:05 p.m ET. Joe Ross (5-4, 2.92 ERA) will get the start for the Nats against Adam Morgan (1-5, 6.70) for the Phillies.

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