Nationals drop a tight game to the Phillies 7-4

The Washington Nationals lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in the nation’s capital tonight, 7-4.

The Phillies got on the board first when outfielder Bryce Harper hit a 2-run homer to right field. Nationals pitcher Josiah Gray walked Andrew McCutchen, and gave up a single to Brad Miller which put McCutchen on third. Shortly after, Freddy Galvis’ groundball sent McCutchen home and the Phillies were up 3-0 at the end of the first inning.

It was a 3-2 game in the third when Gray gave up a leadoff single by Bryce Harper, a one-out walk to Brad Miller, and a base-loading walk to Freddy Galvis, all of whom scored in the next at bat when Ronald Torreyes hit a long fly to left that Yadiel Hernández tracked all the way to the wall but couldn’t catch. Three runs scored as Hernández collected it, 6-2 Phillies. Kieboom homered to left center at the bottom of the second and the Nationals would only score again in the fifth inning when Juan Soto scored on a Wheeler wild pitch.

Gray gave up seven hits, three walks, and six runs, all earned, in 4.0 IP, and Ruiz finished his debut in D.C. 1 for 4 at the plate. Alcides Escobar fouled a fastball off his left kneecap early in the game, and left the field with help, unable to put any weight on the leg.

Josiah Gray started with Keibert Ruiz catching, Lane Thomas in center, Patrick Murphy and Mason Thompson in the bullpen, and Riley Adams as the backup catcher on the bench. All of the above were acquired in deadline deals, and all of them are up on the major league roster now.

“They’re coming from one team to a new team, they’re young, expectations are high, for me, it’s just treating them the way I treat everybody else, with a lot of respect, and understanding that I know the game sometimes is not easy,” said Martinez. “But it’s going to be a learning process, and that’s exactly what I tell them, ‘Hey, we’re going to learn together. I want to learn from you, you’re going to learn from us. You’re going to learn what we want you to do, but it’s going to be a lot of fun.’ And you deserve to be here.”

The Nationals play the Phillies again Wednesday, September 1st at 7:05pm ET.