Control Denied, Nationals 5 - Phillies 2

Things started well enough, new Ace Kyle Kendrick was starting so here's a chance to overtake the Nats in the standings. After a ho-hum first, Ryan Howard led off the second with a screaming double. Two batters later Dom Brown doubled to Right and scored Howard. Hey, we're winning!

Well, until the bottom of the 3rd when KK got a little Walky and after a lead off out from Span walked the bases loaded. One sac fly later and and tied game. Kendrick managed to get out of the inning without further damage. The team's been hitting though, and it's tied, so things will be fine.

So to start the Fifth, Dom Brown led off with a Single. Following a wild pitch to Galvis, getting Brown to Second, Freddy then singled, getting Brown to Third. Erik Kratz flew out, but it was plenty deep to score Brown from Third. Then KK helped his cause with a hit hit. That was followed by a single from Rollins. Bases loaded, one out. Here's where we break things open... Then Revere managed to Valdez the Phillies out of the inning. Still, one run lead.

I was right about things breaking open in the Fifth, by the way. Bryce Hunter of the Detroit Tigers led off with a single and was driven in by a LaRoche Triple. Tie game, but Getting Desmond out in the next AB meant it was now 2 outs, so we can probably get out of this down by one. Suzuki singles in LaRoche. It's alright, we're getting to the bottom of the lineup, just need a grounder to wrap things up. Tyler Moore accommodated with a soft, routine grounder to Michael Young. Actually, with Young is there any such thing as a routine grounder? Young fielded it cleanly enough, but clearly mistook his palm for the baseball and by the time he grabbed the actual ball, everyone was safe. Lombardozi then smoked a double into the gap clearing the bases. 5-2.

Cutesy Stutesey took over for Kendrick in the 6th, and performed fine in the 6th mowing through the heart of the Nats order with 2 groundouts and a weak popout. And cruised through the 7th striking out the first 2 batters and getting a fly out from Suzuki. Now, Stutes isn't the bee's knees or anything as a Pitcher, but swapping him out for nice guy Durbin and maybe the first month of the season is less painful (I'm full of crap there, as Stutes was every bit as awful as Durbin the first few weeks of the year. I'm just venting nonsensically).

I would now like to talk about how awesomely fun it is to watch Galvis in the field. He turned in a play of the week in the 8th behind BJ Durbin Rosenberg. Ball hit somewhat softly up the middle, Galvis slides, scoops it with his glove to Rollins covering second for one of the snazzier 4-6-3 double plays you may ever see. That also ended Rosenberg's night and brought on Jeremy Horst. At this point I acsolutely stopped paying any attention so I could watch to see if Anibal Sanchez could pull off a No-hitter. Oh well, Joe Mauer singles with one out in the 9th. So I'm back to this. Harper grounds out to end the inning, after Horst gave up 2 hits to Leties. They were grounders and not hit all that well, but if Cholly wanted to go LOOGY, why not Tony Bastard who's actually tougher on Lefties than Horst?

The Phillies went down weakly in the 9th. Game over. Fangraph of devastation below.