Oy vey: Nationals 8, Phillies 0

Oy vey.

I mean, just...

Yeah.

When you see a score like Nationals 8, Phillies 0, you know that the Phillies have failed at the two fundamental parts of a baseball game: pitching and hitting. Or, at least pitching and scoring runs.

It began with Aaron Nola, and he didn’t look right. He gave up four runs, all in the second, and Pete Mackanin removed him before the fourth inning was over. From Alex Putterman's game wrap on MLB.com:

"There was something about his rhythm that just didn't look right," Mackanin said. "He didn't make that many bad pitches, but he didn't look like he was in sync."

Mackanin was speaking the truth, and Nola agreed. From the wrap again:

"I felt pretty wild with all my pitches," Nola said. "My curveball was hanging a lot. They put some good swings on those, especially when I had two strikes. It was too much in the zone. And my fastball, my two-seamer was running too much. I couldn't really control it much. And just getting behind guys really hurt me today. It made my pitch count jump up pretty quick, pretty high."

When your starter feels that way, and performs that way, there’s no way it can end well, and it didn’t. Mackanin replaced Nola with Elvis Araujo, who got Bryce Harper to end the fourth, but let two runners reach in the fifth before Mackanin had to replace him. Andrew Bailey came in next, and he allowed a double that scored both of Araujo’s runners. The only run Bailey allowed in his 1 2/3 innings scored on a sac fly. David Hernandez pitched a scoreless seventh, and Hector Neris - SURPRISE! - gave up three hits and a run in the eighth. Woof.

So the pitching was pretty crappy overall. But how about the hitting? They had seven hits, so at least they were putting wood on the ball. Maikel Franco had two hits, so that's a good thing. Cameron Rupp, Odubel Herrera, Cody Asche, and Tyler Goeddel all had a hit as well. And I can’t leave out Tommy Joseph, the STARTING FIRST BASEMAN OF OUR PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES, YAY, who also had a hit today.

But no one crossed the plate. And if you want to win a ball game, you want to score runs. The Phillies didn’t, and so they lost. Simple as that.

Catch the series finale tomorrow, as the Phillies continue their free fall to the level they probably should have been playing at the whole time. It was nice while it lasted, though. Right?