Washington, DC – Hunter Pence blasted a pair of two-run homers and the Philadelphia Phillies avoided a three-game sweep with a convincing 9-3 victory over the Washington Nationals in Sunday's series finale at Nationals Park.
Placido Polanco finished 3-for-5 with an RBI single, Freddy Galvis smacked a two-run single, while Shane Victorino had an RBI triple and Juan Pierre knocked in a run for the Phils, who snapped a seven-game losing streak against Washington.
Cole Hamels (4-1) was fantastic on the mound, giving up one run on five hits and a walk while fanning eight in eight innings. He also added a hit at the plate.
Roger Bernadina ripped an RBI double, Ian Desmond beat out an infield single for an RBI and Bryce Harper produced a run by stealing home in the first inning for the Nats, who had their four-game winning streak snapped.
Jordan Zimmermann (1-3), who had walked only three batters in five previous starts this season, issued four free passes and gave up three runs on seven hits while striking out one in six-plus innings.
"I didn't feel too good tonight and my stuff definitely wasn't there," said Zimmermann.
To make matters worse for Washington, right fielder Jayson Werth left the game in the sixth inning with a broken left wrist.
"He has a broken wrist and is going to be down a while," said Washington manager Davey Johnson. "He's going to go see a specialist. It's broken on the opposite side of where he had the other problem. It's a clean break and he will be out for a while."
With two down in the inning, Polanco sliced a fly ball to right. Werth, playing deep, came charging in for the ball, went into a slide to make the catch and bent back his wrist. The ball fell out of his glove and Werth immediately grabbed the wrist in pain.
Washington stole a run in its first at-bat to take an early 1-0 lead. Harper was drilled in the back by Hamels with two outs, went first-to-third on a base hit by Werth, then, with Chad Tracy at the plate, Hamels threw to first to keep Werth close and Harper broke for the plate and slid in under the tag of Carlos Ruiz.
"They're probably not gonna like me for it, but I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't trying to do it," said Hamels about hitting Harper. "I think they understood the message and they threw it right back."
Both dugouts were warned by home plate umpire Andy Fletcher when Zimmermann plunked Hamels in the knee in the third inning.
The Phillies got three runs back in the fourth to take a two-run advantage. Victorino got the rally started by drawing a walk and Pence followed by blasting a high fastball from Zimmermann deep over the left-center field wall. Laynce Nix then singled, moved to second on a groundout by Ruiz and scored on a base hit back through the box by Polanco.
Later in the game, Philadelphia made up for wasting a bases loaded and no outs scoring opportunity in the seventh by blasting Washington pitching for six runs in the ninth.
Jimmy Rollins started the offensive outburst with a walk and stole second before scoring on a single up the middle by Pierre. Victorino then smoked a hanging slider from Ryan Perry into the right field corner to bring in Pierre to make it 5-1.
Pence followed and took another hanging slider from Perry over the wall in left for his second round-tripper of the game and a 7-1 advantage.
After Ruiz and Polanco reached base, Johnson summoned Tom Gorzelanny from the bullpen, but he was greeted by Galvis, who sliced a two-run single down the left field line to cap the huge inning.
Washington got two back in the bottom of the inning when Bernadina smacked a double into the right field corner to score Rick Ankiel and Desmond followed by beating out a grounder to third which scored Bernadina, but it wasn't enough for the Nats.
Game Notes
The Phillies improved to 9-10 on the road this season...Philadelphia's seven- game skid against the Nationals was the longest ever for Philadelphia against the Nationals franchise and was the longest losing streak for the Phils against any NL team since they dropped 12 straight to Houston from Aug. 17, 2004 to Sept. 7, 2005...Harper became the second National to steal home. Desmond also swiped home on April 20, 2011 against the Cardinals...Hamels threw 78 of his 109 pitches for strikes.
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