Nine on 9/9: Phillies 5, Nats 4

Let’s get the important stuff out of the way first: Rhys Hoskins hit his 14th home run, in just his 30th game. Continuing his recent trend, he is now the fastest player in history to reach 14 career home runs, in terms of games played.

Hoskins also walked three times, and currently has an OPS of nearly 1.200.

His bomb tied the score at 1-1. A few minutes later, Maikel Franco hit one himself. The Nats’ starter, incidentally, was Edwin Jackson, most notable for letting Joe Blanton hit a home run in the 2008 World Series.

Speaking of starters, Mark Leiter Jr started for the Phils, and junkballed his way through six reasonable innings of four-run ball. He struck out eight, while only walking one.

After Leiter, Edubray Ramos, Luis Garcia and Hector Neris combined for three scoreless innings, with only two baserunners and six strikeouts. We might have a bullpen there.

In other news, Odubel Herrera’s hitting streak came to an end, as he was held to an 0fer.

The Phils will look to even up the four game series, and postpone the Gnats’ celebration further, tomorrow, sending slugging Ben Lively to the hill against Stephen Strasburg. No word yet on if the Nats will shut down Stras for the postseason again.