Derek Hill rallies Phillies with go-ahead grand slam in 7th in 6-3 win over Nationals
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9:28 PM on Monday, August 3
By DAN GELSTON
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Derek Hill hit a go-ahead grand slam in the seventh inning and Bryce Harper added a two-run shot to lift the Philadelphia Phillies to their third straight win, 6-3 over the Washington Nationals on Monday night.
Hill's slam off reliever Tom Cosgrove (0-1) sent the crowd into a frenzy and provided the Phillies their second major spark of the day. Hill — who added a running, tumbling catch in right-center in the eighth — hit his ninth homer of the season hours after the Phillies swung a deal for three-time batting champion Luis Arraez from the San Francisco Giants.
Hill also bailed out fading veteran starter Aaron Nola, who has not won since May 26 and is coming off an 0-4 record with a 4.34 ERA in July.
Nola surrendered Abimelec Ortiz’s first career home run in the first inning and Daylen Lile's 14th homer of the season in the second, a two-run shot that made it 3-0 Nationals.
Nola struck out six over six innings and actually lowered his ERA from 5.61 to 5.55 this season.
Nola again did little to back up team president Dave Dombrowski’s public faith that the right-hander can contribute in a playoff series — much less the stretch run.
Dombrowski said before the game that he talked to other teams about adding starting pitching ahead of the close of Monday’s trade deadline. He failed to land a starter — though he added some bullpen depth, notably for Mets left-hander Brooks Raley — because of his belief in Nola and struggling rookie Andrew Painter.
Dombrowski’s spin on Nola was, “If you looked at the analytics, he’s ranked like 75th in MLB of all starting pitchers. So, I mean, when you do that, you go by 30 and divide it.”
Surely, that math doesn’t add up for Phillies fans who wanted the team to go hard after a solid starter that could slide into the No. 4 or No. 5 spot in the rotation and be counted on to win a playoff game.
Kyle Backhus (2-1) pitched a scoreless seventh for the win and Jhoan Duran worked a scoreless ninth for his 25th save.
The Phillies send Jesús Luzardo (9-5, 3.57 ERA) to the mound against Washington RHP Zack Littell (7-8, 4.94).
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