Philadelphia Phillies

WASHINGTON - In a season of offensive inconsistency, Domonic Brown has been among the Phillies bright spots. Brown teamed up with the beleaguered Phillies bullpen in Saturday's 5-3 win over the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park.

The Phillies top the Nationals, 5-3, at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.

Domonic Brown swatted his sixth home run in May and knocked in two to power the Phils. (AP) Consecutive two-out hits by Delmon Young and Domonic Brown plated a pair of runs in the eighth inning and keyed a 5-3 Phillies victory over the Nationals in D.C. on Saturday night.  In what is beginning to seem like an every start occurrence, Jonathan Pettibone admirably battled through six innings despite looking pretty hittable.  Jonathan Papelbon shut the door on the Nats in the ninth for his ninth save.  Chad Durbin threw 13 pitches between the seventh and eighth to get the win. DELMON COMES UP BIG AGAIN - It wasn’t pretty, but Young’s single over the first base bag was the difference on Saturday.  As the ball trickled into the right field corner, Ryne Sandberg took a chance by waving Michael Young home.  It paid off as a weak throw by Bryce Harper and a good slide by Young allowed the Phils to go ahead for good.  Brown laced the next pitch into the gap in right center to make it 5-3.  Delmon Young now has four RBI in the past four games (eight overall). - Brown and Erik Kratz hit back-to-back solo home runs for the Phils in the bottom of the second.  After D. Young became the fourth consecutive hitter to strikeout, Brown jumped all over a first-pitch, hanging curveball, blasting it into the seats in right field.  Kratz hit the next pitch into the bleachers in left center.  Brown finished 2 for 4 with two RBI. - They scored five runs, but the Phillies stuck out 12 times and had only six hits, making Dan Haren look like an All-Star again in the process.  Haren struck out 10 Phillies in six innings.  His previous high this season was five.  Ryan Howard struck out four times. - Remember the Phillies remarkable streak of 16 straight solo home runs?  Well since Jimmy Rollins ended it last Friday against the Reds, the Phils have hit five more dingers; all solo shots. All six of Brown’s May home runs have come with no one on. PETTIBONE NAVIGATES THROUGH SIX - While he got off to a good start, Pettibone was fortunate to get through six innings only allowing three runs.  He let up nine hits and struck out six in those frames, but had to throw 102 pitches to do so and was the beneficiary of some hard-hit outs.  To his credit, Pettibone collected himself after a shaky couple of innings and put the Nats down 1-2-3 in the sixth on five pitches. - The Nats left the bases loaded in the third inning.  In the fourth, what would have been a go-ahead two-run home run from Denard Span sailed just right of the right field foul pole.  While Ben Revere ran down a few hard-hit balls in the fifth, Adam LaRoche was able to tie the game at three with an opposite field blast. - Pettibone has yet to give up more than three earned runs in any of his seven starts.  He has gone at least six innings in four of the seven outings. DID YOU NOTICE? - Span got a pretty good jump on a steal attempt in the first inning, but was gunned down by a kneeling Kratz on a perfect throw. - Batting lefty, Freddy Galvis hit a ball about 360 feet to the left centerfield warning track in the third inning.  Tyler Moore got there, but dropped it on that was a tough play.  So it wasn’t ruled a hit, but it was the latest example of surprising pop from the 170-pound Galvis. - The fourth inning was not a good one for the Phillies defense.   After he got to a ball up the middle, Rollins fired a throw past Howard that put Steve Lombardozzi at second base.  A Pettibone wild pitch enabled Lombardozzi to move to third and he soon trotted home on a Span single, tying the game at two.  Span easily stole second a few pitches later, but was stranded at second.  For Rollins, it was the seventh error this year.  He had 13 all of last season. - To start the eighth inning, Galvis laid down a bunt that Lombardozzi bobbled.  But the second baseman was somehow able, mid-bobble, to deflect the ball off his knee to LaRoche at first just in time to get an incredulous Galvis. - Young only got a single out of

Thanks once again to tipster all-timer @ChickPhilA, who is in Ocean City this weekend and saw these ugly-ass caps on the boardwalk. I might be able to get away with this one if I was Jimmy Buffett and going on stage somewhere in the area but I don’t even think Shane Victorino would wear this monstrosity. Okay, maybe it’s kind of cool but I think if I’m going to wear it once for a laugh someone else is going to have to buy it. This looks like Jeff Loria designed it. If I had Jeff Loria money I wouldn’t buy this.

Philadelphia Phillies (23-25) at Washington Nationals (25-23) Jonathan Pettibone (3-0, 3.00) vs. Dan Haren (4-5, 5.54) TIME: 7:15, Nationals Park TV: FOX Weather: 50′s, partly cloudy Media: Twitter and Facebook The season of ups and downs continues.  The Phillies have been playing their best baseball of the year as of late, but they dropped last night’s game to the Washington Nationals.  The Phillies have yet to build a significant winning streak, but it would be great to start one this Memorial Day weekend. Jonathan Pettibone will attempt to put the Phillies back into the win column.  Since being called up, Pettibone has done better than the Phillies could have asked.  He’s been consistent and has yet to toss a bad outing.  In each of his six starts, Pettibone has had a quality start or better.  He will look to continue his success tonight in D.C. Dan Haren has a pretty good resume, but he has struggled thus far this season.  He has yet to earn the $13 million that he will make in 2013, as his ERA is well over five.  He is coming off his worst start of the season, in which  he allowed seven runs to the always weak-hitting San Diego Padres. Lineup: Your Gameday Beer: Victory Hop Devil Ale, suggested by Gary J. via Facebook GO PHILLIES!

Jonathan Pettibone aims to improve his record to 4-0 as the Phillies hope to rebound from a series-opening clunker to the Nationals in D.C. Ben Revere had been riding somewhat of a hot streak entering Friday night's game. He had gone 7 for 18 over his previous four games, which included two doubles and three runs. In the month of May, he was hitting .370 overall and had grounded into just one double play. Then last night against the Nationals,...

Progress Report for Ruben Amaro's 2013 offseason moves by Scott Butler 5/25/13 The Phillies are two games away from the 50-game mark of the season and it gives us a decent sample size to start bashing constructively criticizing Ruben Amaro's 2013 moves. Ruben Amaro attempted to squeeze one last drop form the best era in Philadelphia Phillies history. Limited payroll flexibility and a barren farm system made that task a difficult one for Rub. As opposed to making high profile free agent acquisitions, he was forced to make several "low risk-high reward" moves. Let's take a look at those moves. Continue reading this post This post has been generated by Page2RSS

The IronPigs square off with the Norfolk Tide this evening at 6:35 PM. If you’re able to go, please be sure to help out if you can with their efforts to help the folks in Oklahoma who have lost so much this week. From the IronPigs: IronPigs INF and Oklahoma native Josh Fields along with his wife Ashleigh are hosting an auction and raffle on Saturday, May 25 at Coca-Cola Park during the IronPigs-Tides game will all proceeds benefiting the tornado relief efforts in Moore, Okla. For those that are unable to attend on Saturday, Josh and Ashleigh have also set up a donation site to accept monetary contributions at the following link: http://www.youcaring.com/other/home-base-oklahoma-city-tornado-relief/61171 “My family and I want to do all we can to send support to our home state,” remarked Fields. “We would really appreciate the support of IronPigs fans to make a difference in the devastated region of Central Oklahoma.” The couple is seeking to raise more than $10,000 with all proceeds benefiting the United Way of Central Oklahoma Tornado Relief Fund. The auction will include one-of-a-kind and unique IronPigs memorabilia and collectibles, including autographed cleats, gloves, bats and balls from various members of the 2013 club. Monday’s devastating tornado, which resulted in a significant loss of life and widespread destruction, has left many Oklahomans in severe need. A native of Ada, Okla., Josh graduated from Stillwater High School and continued both his baseball and football careers at nearby Oklahoma State University.

Legendary magazine writer Pat Jordan penned the epic “Thin Mountain Air” for Philadelphia Magazine in 1994. The story pulled back the curtain on the reclusive Phillies’ Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton whose relationship with the media was beyond adversarial. And when I say “pulled back the curtain”, I mean that it showed the beloved pitcher to be a fucking lunatic: He believes that the last eight U.S. presidents have been guilty of treason, that President Clinton “has a black son” he won’t acknowledge and that his wife, Hillary, “is a dyke,” and that the AIDS virus was created at a secret Maryland biological warfare laboratory “to get rid of gays and blacks, and now they have a strain of the virus that can live ten days in the air or on a plate of food, because you know who most of the waiters are,” and finally, that most of the mass murderers in this country who open fire indiscriminately in fast-food restaurants “are hypnotized to kill those people and then themselves immediately afterwards,” as in the movie The Manchurian Candidate. He blinks once, twice, and says, “Who hypnotizes them? They do!” …and it just gets weirder from there. Earlier this month, Deadspin republished the story as part of “The Stacks”, their collection of classic bits of sports journalism. The phrase “must read” gets thrown around a lot, but trust me when I say that this is something you really must read. It’s honestly hard to believe that a guy that popular can be so loopy.

The Jefferson Memorial is one of the nicest in DC The Phillies are quite content in playing in Washington Nationals stadium, despite getting the loss last night, the Phillies have an overall record of 88-59 at the home of the Nats since they moved in from Montreal in 2005. The Phillies earned most of the wins which came at the expense of terrible Nationals teams that were on the field for the first 6 years or so of the franchise's history. In fact, the Phillies now have lost 4 of the last 5 series in Washington in what is becoming a disturbing trend for the Phils. The last series win here in Washington by the Phillies came last year in last day of July/early August 7/31 to 8/2. If the Phillies are going to be more successful this season, they will need a much better clutch performance from Ben Revere. Revere grounded into a DP with the bases loaded against the Nationals, and he's been up 4 times so far this season with the bases loaded and only has produced 1 RBI and has 0 hits in all of those AB's with bases loaded so far this year. That is the Phillies problem, a lack of clutch hitting when it calls for an RBI or rally. Ryan Howard for example has only been up to bat one time with the bases loaded, in that one AB he produced 2 RBI. In 39 AB's that Howard has had with runners in scoring position, he has struck out 17 times and that is far too many times that he is striking out in those situations. Game 2 of the series tonight in DC, it's Jonathan Pettibone vs Dan Haren