Philadelphia Phillies shutout 0-3 by Washington Nationals as Ross Detwiler shines – MLB Update
The Philadelphia Phillies are quiet against the Washington Nationals’ starter Ross Detwiler as they lose 0-3 on August 2, 2012 at Nationals Park, Washington, D.C. in the last game of the three match series.
Things worsened for the team after the completion of roster moves that the Phillies carried out before the trade deadline. With some of the hitters lost to the trades, their line-up lacked the vigour on Thursday that was needed to challenge the starter Detwiler.
Detwiler threw seven scoreless innings.
Against Washington’s hurlers, most of the Phillies’ hitters were clueless. Collecting just three hits on Thursday, Philadelphia gave signs of a serious slump, which is suffered rarely by any club.
On the other hand, the Nationals are gaining strength with every passing day. Their offence has solidified further with an entry by the outfielder Jayson Werth, who stayed out for most part of the season due to a wrist injury.
Currently, the Nationals possess all those hitters that a team can dream of. With the right fielder Bryce Harper, left fielder Michael Morse and the third-baseman Ryan Zimmerman, their offence can knock down even the most dominant of the pitchers present
in the world of baseball.
On Thursday, they relied on a home-run by their first baseman Adam LaRoche to reach the lead in the second inning. The biggest revelation of the game was their centre fielder Werth, who managed one hit and contributed one RBI in the match.
Meanwhile, LaRoche praises Werth and believes that his addition in the line-up will help the team both offensively and defensively.
"Regardless of what's going on statistically, he's stealing bases and doing things in the outfield," LaRoche said. "It's huge to have him back, having him back in the lineup, back in the outfield, back in here. We've been waiting a couple of months for this."
From the way Werth made a connection on the plate on Thursday, it is not wrong to believe that in the upcoming games he can produce massive hits. His credentials for hitting mammoth home-runs are known by the opponents. Therefore, they will be wary of him.
This was the last game of the series. Taking the winning feelings in the upcoming series always gives the team a psychological advantage.
It will be interesting to see as to what extent the Nationals can capitalise on this the next time they play.
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