Today we celebrate our Independence Day: Phillies 11, Nationals 0

Fireworks are usually associated with the holiday of Independence Day, but with the Phillies granted an almost unheard of off-day on July 4th, fans had to wait an extra day to see their baseball team deliver some explosions. Remember what those alien spaceships did to Washington DC in the movie Independence Day? That’s pretty much what the Phillies did to Washington’s baseball team on Tuesday night as they recorded an 11-0 annihilation of the Nationals.

Kyle Schwarber set the tone in the first inning.

And then he did it again in the third.

With that, the rout was on. The Phillies added two more runs in the fourth, and another two in the fifth. They topped it off by batting around en route to five more in the sixth.

Scoring eleven runs is a good way to help out a rookie pitcher, although in this instance, the rookie didn’t need all that much help. Cristopher Sanchez was recalled from the minors in place of the injured Ranger Suarez and pitched five scoreless innings.

Here’s a sign that things were going well for the Phillies: Jeurys Familia pitched a scoreless inning, striking out two batters. After Familia’s inning, Andrew Bellatti and Mark Appel finished things off without much difficulty against a Nationals lineup that didn’t seem all that interested in putting up a fight.

Tuesday’s game was a lot of fun, but perhaps the best part is that with two more games against the struggling Nationals, the Phillies should have a great opportunity to stretch out the holiday celebration even longer.