Gamethread 8/31: Phillies at Nationals

The Phillies come into play tonight having won four in a row to move to within 3 ¹⁄₂ games of the division lead, and 3 games of the 2nd wildcard.

The chances of continuing this winning streak look bleak based on tonight’s lineup — only three of them were starters when the season began, and one of those (McCutchen) has been struggling mightily of late. But who knows — lefty Patrick Corbin hasn’t been good, and Joe Girardi has at least stacked the lineup with right handed bats (and switch hitters).

Matt Moore takes the mound, looking to keep the Phils in the game:

A less important story line is that the Phillies have now scored exactly seven runs in five games in a row.

That’s an odd novelty that hadn’t been accomplished since 1989, when the Brewers scored seven in six straight games. Since Milwaukee was still in the AL at the time, the Phillies set a new NL record in this obscure category last night.

In addition, it’s the first time a Phillies team scored 7 OR MORE in five straight games since 1980. And the time before that was 1950. Hmm, there might be a pattern there.

Anyway, for the Nationals:

Go Phils!