PHILADELPHIA — After the first inning Friday night, the Washington Nationals teetered on the brink of a blowout. Jayson Werth dropped a flyball and Stephen Strasburg failed to pitch around his error. They rattled their own ace and handed a three-run lead to Cliff Lee, who does not pitch so much as he plays speed chess. The night turned bleak before the sun set. The Nationals never flinched.
The early stages of a meltdown at Citizens Bank Park ceded to the Nationals’ 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, their ninth comeback win and latest bullpen beatdown. Three innings after his dust-up with Lee emptied both dugouts, Denard Span’s leadoff double sparked a three-run, five-hit eighth-inning outburst against the Phillies’ implosive bullpen that turned a one-run deficit into their third straight win.
Strasburg and Werth both made good — Strasburg with a flawless finish, and Werth with three hits and a walk against his old team. The Nationals’ fifth win in six games followed their typical three-step plan: Fall behind early. Shrug. Profit.
Strasburg could not erase the effect of Werth’s error, but he afforded the Nationals an opportunity to creep back into the game. If you want to argue he didn’t pick up his teammates in the first, then what do you call the five scoreless innings that followed? Strasburg allowed six hits and walked one, yielding no runs after the first. Circumstances dictated Manager Matt Williams lift him for a pinch hitter, but he could have gone deeper, needing just 83 pitches for six innings.
Tyler Moore, of all the hitters on this big, blue planet, reprised his role as Lee’s nemesis. After he blasted a solo home run in the third and scored the Nationals’ second run in the fifth after a leadoff single, Moore has gone 6 for 12 with two homers and three doubles against Lee. His offense and Strasburg’s dominance allowed the Nationals to creep within one run entering the eighth, after Lee had been removed.
Mike Adams was the first reliever through the bullpen gates, and the Nationals pounced. Even before their outburst Friday, the Nationals had posted an .828 OPS against relief pitchers this season. Pick any random Nats hitter and any random reliever, and he’s been batting like an all-star.
Span ripped a double to right field. With Anthony Rendon at the plate, Span swiped third as Adams forgot about him. Rendon smashed a single to center, anyway, and the Nationals tied the score. They were far from finished.
Werth rolled a single up the middle. Phillies Manager Ryne Sandberg called on hard-throwing lefty Jake Diekman to face Adam LaRoche. Lately, it has not mattered who faces him. Tuesday night in Houston, he ripped both the game-tying and game-winning hits.
Friday against Diekman, LaRoche smoked a 97-mph fastball into center field. Rendon slid headfirst into home as Ben Revere’s lollipop throw arced home, and the Nationals had taken their first lead. For good measure, Ian Desmond doubled home Werth. Five straight hits from their top five hitters had given the Nationals a 5-3 lead.
Hours earlier, the result seemed improbable. Strasburg retired the Phillies’ first two hitters, but Chase Utley and Ryan Howard singled to put runners on the corners with two outs. Marlon Byrd popped a deep fly down the right field line. Sun and wind added to the degree of difficulty, but Werth should have made the catch. Instead, the ball plopped out of his glove, and the inning continued.
Strasburg still held the advantage, ahead in the count, 1-2. Three pitches later, Strasburg rifled a 2-2, 96-mph fastball over the outside part of the plate. Byrd lashed at the ball, and it screamed to right field. Werth drifted back again, but this time he could only look up, watch the wind carry the ball into the third row and regret.
Instantly, the Nationals trailed 3-0. The deficit could fairly be laid at Werth’s feet. But the inability to overcame shoddy fielding behind him has become a recurring bugaboo for Strasburg. His second start of the season unspooled after Ryan Zimmerman’s throwing error. Six of the 22 runs Strasburg has allowed this year have been unearned.
Strasburg made up for it with the rest of his night, and the Nationals chipped away. Lee retired the first six hitters he faced, but to that point he hadn’t had to face Moore. Williams started Moore in left field because of his history against Lee. Moore validated the choice.
Moore laced a 2-2 cutter into the left field seats. The Nationals still had not registered a second hit when Moore came to the plate to lead off the fifth inning. He poked a single to right.
The Nationals created a rally when Utley muffed Jose Lobaton’s sharp grounder. Strasburg bunted both runners into scoring position. And then the night briefly veered into controversy.
Span stood in the batter’s box, twirling his bat and asking for time with his left hand. The umpire never paused the action. Lee, one of the quickest workers in the league, did not acknowledge Span’s timeout, either. He fired an inside fastball. If Span had not turned his shoulder at the last second, it would have drilled him.
Typically gentle in nature, Span took exception. He glared at Lee until Lee looked at him. Span shrugged his shoulders and yelled, “Come on, man.” Lee barked back at him. The crowd murmured, but the at-bat wore on.
Span whacked a groundout to second base, which scored Moore and cut the Nationals’ deficit to 3-2. As Span trotted across the infield to the Nationals’ dugout, Lee said something to him. Span stopped and turned. Both dugouts emptied. Ridiculously, relievers from both teams sprinted out of the same bullpen gate. Once the players met in the middle of the diamond, words far exceeded action.