The Washington Nationals got back to their winning ways on Sunday afternoon, beating the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1, to win their eighth consecutive series.
Bryce Harper finished 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI, and now leads the majors in that category with 41. Gio Gonzalez was also particularly sharp, striking out seven and walking only one over 6 1/3 innings. He held the Phillies to one run.
The Nationals won four of their five games during this homestand and will now embark on a brief Midwestern road trip. They’ll face the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field first, then play three in Cincinnati.
THE RUNDOWN: Situational hitting is extremely important to manager Matt Williams, so the first few innings of Sunday’s game probably drove him nuts. In the first, Denard Span hit a leadoff double but was left stranded on third. In the fourth, the Nationals had runners on second and third with one out. Neither scored. By that point, however, they had tied the game on an RBI single by Jose Lobaton. And in the fifth, Yunel Escobar tripled and scored on a groundout by Harper to put Washington in front. The previous situational hitting woes were forgiven, and the Nationals tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the seventh to seal the win.
THE HIGHLIGHT: Escobar is no slouch on the basepaths, but he is not particularly fleet of foot, either. So when a deep shot to the gap in right-center field was bobbled by center fielder Odubel Herrera, it was a bit surprising to see Escobar round second and continue to third. He slid headfirst into the bag, narrowly beating the relay throw for his first triple since September 21, 2013. The runner-up in this category: Harper’s 9-6 forceout in the seventh. You don’t see that too often.
STAR OF THE GAME: OK, so this isn’t as much a star of the game as an unsung star of the season, but I think it’s important to give a shoutout to Lobaton. He entered Sunday’s series-finale with just 36 at-bats over nine games, both the lowest total among Nationals’ position players. As the backup catcher, he will always have little playing time, even by bench standards. But when Lobaton has played, he’s made a noticeable impact. He slapped a single up the middle in the fourth inning Sunday to tie the game at 1, his seventh RBI in 10 games.
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THE TAKEAWAY: As someone who watches him play (almost) every day, you’d think that I’d stop being impressed by Harper at some point. Nope. Not yet, anyways. And most of the time, it has nothing to do with the home runs. On Sunday, for example, he didn’t hit a home run but didn’t have an unproductive at-bat. He singled twice, walked once and drove in a run with a groundball up the middle. The walk was especially impressive. He dug himself an 0-2 hole, took three straight balls, fouled off two pitches and walked on the eighth pitch of the at-bat. Guys who can do that on a regular basis are just as rare as the sluggers, and to have a combination of both is what makes Harper special.
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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