The baseball gods have lately been generous with their reminders that you never really know what to expect when you come to the ballpark. The Nationals are among the weaker hitting teams in the league lately, and they were facing Cliff Lee, who was 3-0 with two complete game shutouts in three previous career starts against the Nats. The Phillies have been getting their stroke back lately, and they drew Jason Marquis, who has terrible career numbers against the Fightins.
So naturally, Lee got shelled while Marquis limited the damage, and the Phils lost by a 10-2 count.
A day after we saw Roy Halladay yield three homers to the Nats, they hung two long balls and six total earned runs on Lee. Dogs and cats, living together… Mass hysteria. Or, just baseball.
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Lee's start was shaky though, and probably enough to have some fans heading for either the whiskey or the Tums before bed. After the game, Lee himself said he wished he could erase it from his memory and was particularly displeased with the three walks he allowed. It was the fourth time he's conceded four or more earned runs in a start this season, and eight of his 12 starts have seen him surrender at least three. Not exactly the numbers we were expecting from Lee through the early months.
Perhaps having saved up a few earned runs from his long five innings of work in the 19-inning game, Danys Baez let up three tonight. I suppose we should be grateful at the timing of his statistical correction given that the runs came when the Phils were already down.
BANGERS AND MASH
The lone bright spot was when Domonic Brown (video) and John Mayberry Jr hit back-to-back homers, marking the second straight game that Phils batters went yard in consecutive at bats. Brown now has 10 hits in his last 19 at bats.
News
Placido Polanco had two hits, increasing his league-leading singles total on a day where it was also announced that he leads NL third basemen in All-Star Voting.
UP NEXT
The Phils wrap up their series in DC Wednesday at 1:05, with Roy Oswalt facing John Lannan.