NATS CLINCH NL EAST DESPITE FALLING TO PHILS
Marlins Dump Braves in 10
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (AP) – The Washington Nationals became the first big league team to secure a division title, clinching the National League East, despite falling 3-1 to the Philadelphia Phillies at Nationals Park. Phillies starter Jerome Williams held the Nationals to one hit over seven innings of work while fanning six. Ken Giles inherited and pitched out of a major jam in the bottom of the eighth and Jonathan Papelbon tossed a scoreless ninth for his 37th save of the year. The loss was the third in a row for Washington, the club’s longest skein since dropping five in a row in late June. Despite the modest losing streak, the Nationals hold the best record in all of Major League Baseball at 90-49.
The Phillies entered the game with the worst run differential (-138) in all of baseball, having dropped 10 of the 16 games they’d played against the Nationals. But they took the lead in the top of the first inning. Facing Washington starter Stephen Strasburg, Ben Revere led off the contest with a single to right. Jimmy Rollins drew a walk, putting runners on first and second and Chase Utley followed with a base hit to left, scoring Revere and leaving runners on first and second. When Strasburg walked Ryan Howard to load the bases with no outs, the potential for a huge first inning was evident. But Strasburg worked his way out of further trouble as quickly as he immersed himself in it, fanning Marlon Byrd on three pitches and inducing Dominic Brown to roll into an inning-ending double play.
Philadelphia extended the lead in the fourth when Howard drew a lead-off free pass and advanced to second on Byrd’s base hit to right. Brown rolled into a fielder’s choice, leaving runners on the corners with one out, but Carlos Ruiz doubled to left-center, scoring Howard and advancing Brown to third. When Maikel Franco reached on an infield hit, Brown scored to give the Phillies a 3-0 lead.
Philadelphia would never have another serious scoring attempt for the duration of the game, but it would prove more than enough for Williams, who took a perfect game into the seventh inning, becoming just the seventh big league hurler to do so this season. After retiring the first 19 Washington batters he faced, Anthony Rendon drilled a one-out single off the glove of second baseman Utley, breaking up the perfect game, as well as the no-hitter. Williams, seemingly miffed, responded by striking out NL batting leader Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche to end the inning.
But after Williams walked Ian Desmond on four pitches leading off the eighth and with the left-handed bat of Bryce Harper due up, Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg relaced Williams, who had eclipsed 90 pitches at this point, with southpaw Jake Diekman. Nationals skipper Matt Williams countered with righty swinging Kevin Frandsen and the pinch hitter made the move pay off with a single to right, putting runners on first and second and bringing the potential tying run to the plate in the form of pinch hitter Tyler Moore. Moore singled to left, filling the bases with no outs. Sandberg had seen enough and removed Diekman in favor of Giles. Things didn’t go as planned immediately. Giles walked Asdrubel Cabrera on four pitches, forcing in a run. The tying run was now in scoring position, the go-ahead run was on first and there were still no outs. But Giles stepped up. He struck out pinch hitter Danny Espinosa for the first out and then closed the door completely when he induced Denard Span to ground into a 4-6-3 double play.
In the bottom of the ninth, Papelbon retired Rendon and Werth on ground balls to open the frame but then walked LaRoche, bringing Desmond to the plate as the tying run. But Papelbon worked ahead and struck out Desmond on a 1-2 pitch to end the game.
Meanwhile, in Miami, the Marlins won a 4-3 10-inning decision over the Atlanta Braves on Giancarlo Stanton’s walk-off blast off Luis Avilan. The loss by the Braves was all the Nationals needed to wrap up the NL East, doing so with more than three weeks remaining on the regular season schedule.
9/5/2014, Phi14-Was14, Nationals Park
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP
2014 Phillies 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 7 0 8 1
2014 Nationals 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 3 0 4 2
Phillies AB R H BI AVG Nationals AB R H BI AVG
Revere cf 4 1 2 0 .316 Span cf 4 0 0 0 .307
Rollins ss 4 0 0 0 .207 Rendon 3b 4 0 1 0 .299
Utley 2b 3 0 2 0 .257 Werth rf 4 0 0 0 .335
Howard 1b 2 1 0 1 .200 LaRoche 1b 3 0 0 0 .236
Ruf 1b 0 0 0 0 .217 Desmond ss 3 1 0 0 .287
Byrd rf 4 0 1 0 .253 Harper lf 2 0 0 0 .249
Giles p 0 0 0 0 .000 Frandsen ph 1 0 1 0 .257
Papelbon p 0 0 0 0 .000 Ramos,W c 2 0 0 0 .248
Brown,D lf 4 1 0 0 .203 Moore,T ph 1 0 1 0 .246
Sizemore,G lf 0 0 0 0 .227 Lobaton c 0 0 0 0 .238
Ruiz c 3 0 1 1 .307 Cabrera,A 2b 2 0 0 1 .236
Franco 3b 3 0 1 1 .333 Strasburg p 1 0 0 0 .169
Hernandez,C ph 1 0 0 0 .270 Hairston ph 1 0 0 0 .188
Asche 3b 0 0 0 0 .278 Thornton p 0 0 0 0 .000
Williams,Je p 3 0 0 0 .111 Clippard p 0 0 0 0 .000
Diekman p 0 0 0 0 .000 Espinosa ph 1 0 0 0 .245
Gwynn lf 1 0 0 0 .208 Soriano,R p 0 0 0 0 .000
32 3 7 3 29 1 3 1
Phillies INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Williams,Je W 5-2 7.0 1 1 1 1 6 92 56 3.05
Diekman 0.0 2 0 0 0 0 9 4 3.47
Giles H 6 1.0 0 0 0 1 1 10 5 2.18
Papelbon S 37 1.0 0 0 0 1 1 17 9 1.75
9.0 3 1 1 3 8 128 74
Nationals INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Strasburg L 16-11 6.0 6 3 3 4 8 109 70 3.38
Thornton 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 14 7 3.60
Clippard 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 7 6 1.49
Soriano,R 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 20 14 1.83
9.0 7 3 3 4 10 150 97
Phi: Ruf inserted at 1b in the 7th
Sizemore,G inserted at lf in the 8th
Sizemore,G moved to rf in the 8th
Gwynn inserted at lf in the 8th
Hernandez,C batted for Franco in the 9th
Asche inserted at 3b in the 9th
Was: Hairston batted for Strasburg in the 6th
Frandsen batted for Harper in the 8th
Moore,T batted for Ramos,W in the 8th
Espinosa batted for Clippard in the 8th
Frandsen moved to lf in the 9th
Lobaton inserted at c in the 9th
2B-Ruiz(31). RBI-Howard(67), Ruiz(46), Franco(1), Cabrera,A(62).
SB-Revere(35). K-Revere, Rollins 4, Byrd 2, Ruiz, Williams,Je 2, Rendon,
Werth 2, LaRoche, Desmond, Cabrera,A, Strasburg, Espinosa. BB-Revere,
Rollins, Howard 2, LaRoche, Desmond, Cabrera,A. HBP-Utley, Ruiz.
HB-Strasburg, Thornton.
GWRBI: Howard
Temperature: 61, Sky: partly cloudy, Wind: in from right at 16 MPH.
Attendance: 41,525
Game Time: 2:52