The Washington Nationals continued to steamroll the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday on the Phillies home turf of Citizens Bank Park. The Nationals gave no respect to the NL East Champs and pulled off a 7-5 victory. The Nats have now beaten the Phillies in three consecutive games over two days and it is the first time since 2005 the Nats have won consecutive games at CBP. The Nationals will attempt to sweep the shell-shocked Phillies on Thursday in the fourth and final game of the series.
Nationals lefty John Lannan scored the win, his 10th win of the season and it comes against a team he has not had much success against in 2011. Before Wednesday's game Lannan had lost four of the five games when facing the Phillies this season. The southpaw threw five innings giving up three runs on eight hits. He walked one and struck out three. In the three games of the series so far, Nationals starters have only given up two walks to the mighty Phillies line up.
The Nationals Wilson Ramos and Danny Espinosa also connected for a two-run home run each. Espinosa's home run was his 21st of the year and it broke the Nationals/Expos franchise record of most home runs hit by a rookie. He's now tied with Alexei Ramirez for second most among rookie second basemen all time. Espinosa also received his 19th hit-by-pitch which now is the most in the National League.
The Nationals busted open the game in the eighth after Chris Marrero scored on a Phillies throwing error, Ramos hit a RBI single and Jonny Gomes hit a sac fly. Reliever Henry Rodriguez came into the game in the ninth and earned his first save of 2011.
The Nationals are now 75-79 on the season and have pulled two games ahead of the New York Mets who are challenging the Nats for third place in the NL East with seven games to go in 2011.