Time: 2:58
Announced attendance: 29,808
Nationals starting pitcher Aníbal Sánchez had pitched
reasonably well in September, while Phillies starter Kyle Gibson had been mostly
terrible. This afternoon saw Gibson live down to his previous month’s numbers,
while Sánchez pitched well enough to win, in a game where it would have been
hard to tell which team was in contention for the playoffs and which had the
worst record in baseball.
The Phillies quickly jumped out in front when slow-footed LF
Kyle Schwarber tripled (!) to lead off the game and was credited with his 10th
stolen base of the season (!!!) two outs later, after Bryce Harper deliberately
wandered off first base, stopping midway to second in order to bait a throw
from rookie Nats catcher Riley Adams. The home team quickly tied the game in
the bottom of the first before plating 5 runs off of Gibson in the second, an
inning climaxed by a Joey Meneses 3-run double that 3B Alec Bohm probably
should have snared.
The visitors briefly made things interesting in the top of
the 4th, getting 4 hits and 3 runs off Sánchez, but the rest of the
game belonged to the Nats. Meneses blasted a leadoff homer in the bottom of the
5th to complete the damage against Gibson, who did manage to put up
a scoreless 6th. The Phillies bullpen fared no better, giving up 3
runs each in the 7th and 8th to turn the afternoon into a
rout, with infielder Nick Maton finally taking the mound to record the last
out. Meanwhile, Hunter Harvey and Andrés Machado each turned in two scoreless
innings behind Sánchez.
The remnants of Hurricane Ian were very much in evidence
throughout the day. It was raining hard while I was driving down I-270,
although I wound up not needing my umbrella when walking to Rasa for lunch and
then on to Nats Park, which I entered around noon. It did start raining shortly
after I got there, with sufficient wind that I had to climb to the top row of
Section 416 to find an available covered seating area without the wind blowing
in some of the rain. As a result, the 1:05 start was delayed about 40 minutes. Once
the game got underway, however, there were only a couple hints of rain. I was
glad that I had worn my medium-weight jacket, but I didn’t feel the need for
the gloves I had brought along.
