This time the Phillies got great pitching, but the offense didn’t even show up in a 1-0 loss to the Nationals Wednesday night. The Phils are now 0-2, and are traveling down that same road they traveled down last season, and the season before, and the season before, etc., etc.
Cole Hamels had a great outing, striking out six in eight innings. He gave up five hits and walked one. The only mistake he made was a fastball that Ryan Zimmerman got a hold of and took with the right field wind. It barely cleared the fence.
The performance by the rest of the team, however, is downright inexcusable. An offense like this should never be shut out, let alone only get one hit. You could say Tim Redding threw a great game, but barely threw more than half his pitches for strikes. The offense was forcing the issue early, pulling off and popping up balls. When they finally started striking lines, the Nationals defense had the balls played to a T. Basically, Redding got away with steady pitching, never making mistakes. The Phils weren’t patient enough.
Pedro Feliz got the only hit, a single into left-center field.
There’s not much else to say — it was an absolute shutdown on all facets of the offensive game.
Chad Durbin surrendered a hit but got two outs in the eighth. JC Romero relieved him to pitch to Dmitri Young, and promptly got a one-pitch out.
I assume the Phils will find every way to lose before they get the first win — again.
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