Phils Win Series In DC

After last night's 4-0 win against the Washington Nationals, the Phils are 9-3 and have now won every series so far in 2011.

Cliff Lee was dominant last night pitching a 3 hit complete game shutout. Lee had 12 strikeouts and was able to complete the game by throwing just 99 pitches. Lee pounded the strike zone and threw a lot of first pitch strikes to get ahead of the Washington batters. The defense behind Lee came up big especially in the 3rd inning when Rollins gunned down Espinosa at the plate. Carlos Ruiz also made a big defensive play in the 5th inning by gunning down Wilson Ramos who was attempting to steal 2nd. Cliff Lee took care of the rest and and continued to dominate the Nationals for the remainder of the game.

Offensively the Phils struggled greatly against Nationals pitcher Jordan Zimmermann. The Phils had a lot of quick lousy at bats and swung at way too many first pitches. The Phils were extremely impatient at the plate and Zimmermann was mowing them down. Zimmermann had a perfect game in tact going into the 6th inning until Carlos Ruiz broke it up with a line drive homerun to left field. From there the Phils tacked on another run in the 6th, and 2 more insurance runs in the 8th. The Phils eventually won the game by a final of 4-0 and in doing so won their fourth consecutive series.

I was actually at the game last night and I had the privilege of watching a great pitching performance from Cliff Lee in beautiful Nationals Park. I went down on a bus trip with about 400 other people and most of us sat in right field behind Jayson Werth. A lot of Phillies fans booed Jayson Werth and really got on his case through out the game. I got really annoyed by this because Jayson was a great player during his time in Philadelphia and he helped bring this city a World Series title. Having said that, the fans have every right to boo as Jayson did reject the Phils' offer and chose instead to go to Washington. It will be interesting to see how Jayson is greeted in early May when the Nationals visit Citizens Bank Park. Hopefully the fans will be respectful and remember all of the good that Jayson did for this city.