Phils Sweep Nats in Jayson Werth's Return to Philadelphia

“Phils! Phils are good!!”

The bearded one returned to South Philadelphia for the first time since signing his lucrative contract over the offseason. Jayson Werth, still sporting that Grizzly Adams beard, was greeted rather warmly by Philadelphia standards. He spent four years in Philadelphia and blossomed into a player worth $127 million. Wait, not really. But he at least hoodwinked the lowly Washington Nationals into giving him a tractor-trailer full of $20s. When he was announced for his first at-bat Tuesday night the crowd was fairly mixed at first. There were a solid amount of boos mixed with cheers until Werth took his helmet off and acknowledged the crowd. At that point, 45,000 fans gave in; well maybe 40,000 fans gave in and gave him a solid ovation. He certainly played well during his four seasons and leaves the club as their all-time postseason home run leader, although Chase Utley and Ryan Howard may have something to say about that in the coming years.

The Phillies lost their prior game against the New York Mets in 14 innings entering the three game mid-week series. The Nationals were fresh off winning two games in a row in impressive fashion over the defending champion San Francisco Giants, including a 2-0 shut out on Sunday. Unfortunately for the Nationals, they ran into the buzz saw that is Cole Hamels on Tuesday night. Crafty veteran Livan Hernandez started for the Nationals and he pitched effectively but when Hamels is on his game like he was on this night, it is going to be tough to beat the Phillies. Hamels began the hitting by smashing a triple to deep right center field (the first of his career) and later scored on a Jimmy Rollins base hit. Charlie Manuel shuffled the top of the lineup a bit and moved Rollins up to his traditional leadoff spot and he pushed Victorino and Polanco each back a spot each to the two and three holes, respectively. This new look first inning lineup has paid dividends through three games thus far. Jumping to the 7th, Hamels made one bad pitch and gave up a solo home run to Michael Morse in the 7th. The Phillies added two runs in the bottom of the 7th for a little insurance on RBIs from Ryan Howard and the formerly struggling Raul Ibanez. Ibanez snapped an 0-35 streak with two hits Tuesday night. Read that sentence again. Let it sink in. Somehow, despite John Mayberry Jr. waiting in the wings Manuel chose to continue to play Ibanez through this possibly career-ending slump and once again, Manuel has seemingly made the correct decision. Hamels cruised through the next two innings including a 1-2-3 ninth inning in which he struck out Jayson Werth who was fooled badly by a changeup. The crowd seemed to enjoy this. Final 4-1 Phillies.

Vance Worley made his second consecutive start in place of the injured Joe Blanton on Wednesday night. After going six scoreless innings in his first start, Worley began with five straight scoreless innings in his second start. National League teams have to be thinking, “When are we going to get a break against this rotation?” Worley did finally give up a run in the top half of the sixth inning but by the end of the bottom half of that inning; the Phils led 7-1. Raul Ibanez continued to see the ball better and recorded three hits including a massive home run to right-center field. Rollins and Victorino chipped in with run-scoring hits and the ball was handed over to the bullpen for the final nine outs. JC Romero returned from a short stint on the DL and made it through the seventh unscathed. Newcomer Michael Stutes kept his ERA at 0.00 with a scoreless eighth but Danys Baez had his first rough outing this season and gave up a three-run home run to Danny Espinosa in the ninth. Luckily, the Phils had built that six-run cushion and Baez was able to finish the game. Final 7-4 Phillies.

If you are the Washington Nationals staring down the barrel of the umpteenth sweep at the hands of the Phillies over the past five years, you cannot be too pumped to know that Roy Halladay is taking the mound for the Phillies. You also cannot be too pumped if you are the Washington Nationals. It is true the Phillies have beaten up on the perennial cellar dweller in recent years. Here are the Phillies records against the Nationals over the last four seasons as well as their runs scored versus runs allowed.

2007 – 12-6 (85-60)
2008 – 12-6 (92-69)
2009 – 15-3 (116-85)
2010 – 12-6 (107-68)

It is safe to say the Phillies have the Nationals number.

Halladay took the mound with some impressive numbers so far this season, and staggering numbers against the National for his career. Halladay had won nine consecutive decisions against the Nationals/Expos, dating back to his time with the Blue Jays. He would be opposed by John Lannan, who has a similar streak compared to Halladay, except the exact opposite. Lannan is 0-9 all time against the Phils. This one did not look good on paper for the Nats, and it did not look much better on the field either once the game got started. I have had countless versions of this exchange with my dad, Pete:

Me: What the ___ is Charlie doing? I can't believe he is letting Player X continue to kill us.

Pete: I don’t get it. I’m giving up on the season. Charlie is nuts.

This, of cousre, is more sarcasm from a man who grew up with this squad. Hell, he cried himself to sleep every night at the age of 10 during the infamous collapse of the 1964 Phillies. He has seen it all and been through it all with these Phils.

You could substitute quite a few names in there for Player X. Most notably Brad Lidge, Ryan Madson, Jimmy Rollins, and Pat Burrell. This season public enemy number one on the Phils’ roster has been Raul Ibanez. Manuel is the manager, and let us thank him for doing just that. All of the players mentioned above struggled mightily for extended periods of time during their tenure in Philadelphia. Still, Manuel stuck by all of them and they all have come back to redeem themselves and prove their value to this club.

After Shane Victorino got the third started with his fifth home run of the season, a two run shot to left field, the Phillies kept rolling. Polanco singled up the middle, Howard walked, and up stepped Ibanez. Raul already singled in the first but came up with two men on this time. He ripped a hanging breaking ball down the right field line for a two RBI double and the Phils extended their lead to 5-0. Raul then scored on a base hit by Wilson Valdez to make the score 6-0. You had to figure this would stand up with Doc Halladay on the mound. Surprisingly, Doc had to battle through the fourth inning and gave up two runs. Jayson Werth slid home safely under the tag of third string catcher Dane Sardinia even though the throw beat him by a solid margin. I have to say it was weird watching Werth make that kind of play when you are so accustomed to him doing it for the Phillies. Despite his fourth inning struggles, Halladay calmly rebounded and retired the last 11 batters he faced. Doc finished the game with 10 strikeouts in seven innings. This was his third game of at least 10 strikeouts and zero walks since the start of last season. The only other man with three such games? Cliff Lee. Raul came up again in the 5th and for good measure he launched a mammoth blast into the upper deck on the first pitch he saw. Ibanez finished the series batting 8 for 12 with two home runs and five RBIs. He raised his average from .154 to .214. That is some serious damage from a guy who wouldn't have gotten a hit off me about a week ago. The bullpen combination of Antonio Bastardo and Ryan Madson finished the game. Final 7-3 Phils.

The Phillies enter their weekend home series against division rival Atlanta Braves tied for the best record in Major League Baseball at 21-9. They are tied with the Cleveland "I guess these guys aren’t too ____in’ bad" Indians. Maybe they got a speech like this before the first game of the season. Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt (back from taking care of his tornado ravaged property), and Cole Hamels will start the three games for the series. Let’s see how that Braves pitching staff can matchup against those guys this weekend.

Werth Watch:

Jayson did not do much damage in his return to Philadelphia and is scuffling with his swing to put it lightly. He is now batting .230 and is still stuck at four home runs. He has driven in a measly eight runs. The Phillies have six players with more RBIs than that, and Wilson Valdez has seven!