Washington Nationals at Phillies Preview (8/29-8/31)

The Washington Nationals will close out the month of August with a three game series against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park

Over the weekend, the Washington Nationals (75-55) lost two out of three games against the Colorado Rockies. Even though Trea Turner had a great series (6-for-15, one solo home run, four runs scored) and Bryce Harper drove in four runs, the pitching struggled at times.

On Saturday, Yusmeiro Petit gave up five runs in the top of the 11^th. Yesterday, Lucas Giolito went five innings for the first time in his career, but gave up four runs. Today, the Washington Nationals sent down Giolito again to triple-A Syracuse and called up outfielder Michael Taylor.

Despite losing the last two games and going 2-5 this past week, the Nats still hold an eight-game lead in the NL East over the Marlins, who begin a four game series with the Mets this week. Tonight, the Washington Nationals will begin their final series of the month at Citizens Bank Park against the Philadelphia Phillies (60-70).

This season, the Nats are 8-4 against the Phillies, but these two teams haven’t faced each other since June 12. Pete Mackanin’s club is 12-11 this month, but they have lost seven of their last 11 games leading into tonight.

Since the All-Star Break, the Phillies have scored the second fewest runs in the National League (161) are hitting only .234 as a team. Their leading home run hitter over that time is first baseman Ryan Howard (seven). Howard is hitting .319 in the month of August with five home runs and 13 RBI’s in 14 games.

The player to watch in this Phillies lineup is still third baseman Maikel Franco (.251, 22 home runs, 72 RBI’s). While Franco does lead the team in home runs this season, he is hitting only .213 in his last 155 at-bats. Philadelphia did make a trade last week when they acquired catcher A.J. Ellis from the Dodgers for veteran Carlos Ruiz.

As far as the pitching goes, the Phillies rotation does not have one pitcher with an ERA under four this month. Since that last Nats series, Aaron Nola sprained his elbow back in late July and is currently on the DL. Another starter who has struggled is Vincent Velasquez (0-3, 7.52 ERA in his last five starts). In the bullpen, closer Jeanmar Gomez has ten saves in his last 12 chances, but has an ERA of 4.00 since the break.

Before this series starts tonight, here is my breakdown of the three pitching matchups:

Next: Tonight's Matchup