The Phillies completed the sweep of the Nationals this afternoon in Washington, having played four games in less than 48 hours. Kudos all round no matter how messy the games ended up being. No matter how bad the Nats are, they always play the Phillies weird and I do not think these wins were cupcakes.
I spent the afternoon trying to stay awake at a drowsy IronPigs game. When Carrasco left the game, after the 6th, so did I. Carrasco was OK, much better than of late, save one shaky inning in which he let the Gwinnett Braves string together enough hits to take a 3-2 lead. That stood up in an offensively-anemic loss.
By the time I got to the car, it was the 7th in Washington and double-A call-up Sergio Escalona was making his major league debut. He pitched a scoreless inning, despite allowing one hit. Thanks in part to a bizarre Nats' miscue in the 8th, Escalona ended up being the pitcher of record. So one day after rookie Andrew Carpenter was rewarded with a win for hanging around for 4+ yesterday in a rain-shortened game, another rookie picked up his first win. Easy pickings.
The Phillies are now an MLB best 12-4 on the road. That will change as the roadtrip continues on to Cincinnati and New York.
