Phillies rally past Nationals 7-6, complete series sweep

WASHINGTON (AP) — Andrew McCutchen drove in four runs and the Philadelphia Phillies erased a six-run deficit against the Washington Nationals to earn a 7-6 victory Thursday and a three-game series sweep.

The Phillies overcame a disappointing start from Aaron Nola and rallied against the Nationals’ bullpen for their sixth consecutive win. Philadelphia pulled within 1½ games of NL East-leading Atlanta and two games of idle Cincinnati in the race for the second NL wild card.

The Phillies have scored at least seven runs in seven consecutive games for the first time since June 1933.

“We were like ‘Keep it there guys, we’re going to score at least seven, it’s going to happen,’” McCutchen said. “We had some chuckles and some laughs, but we knew we had a chance.”

Juan Soto homered and drove in four runs for Washington, which has lost five in a row and 21 of 27. Lane Thomas also went deep.

McCutchen hit an RBI single in the eighth inning to trim Washington's lead to 6-4. After Andres Machado (1-1) walked Rafael Marchan, Nick Maton’s sharp grounder was misplayed by second baseman Luis García and two runs scored.

García hesitated on Odúbel Herrera’s potential double-play ball a batter later, getting just one out as Marchan came around for the go-ahead run.

“I read the ball in a way that I thought it was possibly going to give me a bad bounce or an in-between hop, so I laid back and made sure I got a good bounce,” García said. “I wanted to make sure I stopped the ball. I didn’t want to give up two runs on that play in case it got by me or got an in-between hop.”

Sam Coonrod (2-2) pitched a scoreless seventh for the win. Ian Kennedy worked the ninth for his sixth save with the Philles and No. 22 for the season overall.

Soto, who...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Phillies-rally-past-Nationals-7-6-complete-16432091.php