Dalton, this land is your land: Phillies 5, Nationals 3

Noah Syndergaard starts are a thing to behold these days. Some people, I think, still believe he is the Syndergaard of old, melting the outside corners with 99+ heat, but he isn’t that pitcher anymore. His starts are nailbiters, once where you watch much of it while performing whatever nervous fidgeting you do in your own home.

Luckily, the Nationals were starting Patrick Corbin.

The first two innings for both pitchers were somewhat unremarkable. The Nationals scratched out a few hits in the second inning, but Syndergaard shut that down pretty easily. The Phillies looked like they had a personal bet amongst themselves to not let Corbin throw 70 pitches in his entire start, swinging early and often. The balls they hit were smoked, but it took a bit to break through. In the third, they did. Edmundo Sosa, back in the lineup as the team gave Bryce Harper the night off, ripped a one out triple and was followed by Dalton Guthrie’s first MLB hit and RBI, giving the Phillies the early lead.

In the fourth, they really started hitting the ball hard off of Corbin, Rhys Hoskins homering to lead off the inning, then followed by an Alec Bohm double and a J.T. Realmuto single to make it 3-0.

Syndergaard being the form that he is in, he simply could not resist making it a little interesting for those watching this game. Riley Adams hit a single in the fifth with one out, then was driven in by a Lane Thomas triple. The Washington National edition of Luis Garcia followed with a ringing double to make the score 3-2, but Syndergaard was able to stem the tide in the inning. In the sixth, Realmuto came up and made the gap between the teams a little wider with a smoked solo shot to right center, making it 4-2.

Alas, Syndergaard gave that run right back on a leadoff home run to start the seventh to Alex Call, ending his night then and there. Andrew Bellatti was summoned from the bullpen and ended any momentum the Nationals may have gained, then turned it over to the offense to add insurance.

Bryson Stott and Matt Vierling started the seventh with back to back singles, but Sosa had a double play induced from him, making it look like a promising inning was going to be for naught. Though Stott was on third, there were two outs and Guthrie was up. What the Nationals (or some Phillies fans) didn’t know is that Guthrie is really, really fast. Hitting a dribbler past the mound meant Washington had no chance to get him, scoring Stott and making the score 5-3.

Jose Alvarado went right through the Nationals in the eighth, meaning the ninth belonged to.....Brad Hand?

Hand started out fine, getting the first two hitters pretty easily, but a few bloops and blips left runners on first and second with two outs. Rob Thomson then made a somewhat surprising move to go to Nick Nelson to face the righty hitter, but Nelson made him look wise, getting Adams to ground out to Segura to end the ballgame.

A solid win for the team to help settle them back into their winning ways.