PHILLIES NEWS

Tonight against the Nationals at the Bank, the Phils had one of those games that was over almost before it started. So far in his career Jason Marquis has been slaughtered by the Phils and he's had a horrid, injury plagued year thus far. It only got worse on this night as the Phils roughed him up for 6 runs in the first inning and forced him out of the game after retiring just 1 batter. It was as if he had never even been in the game and might as well as just stayed home. After Shane Victorino was retired to start the inning the Phils quickly loaded bases. What followed was horrendous luck for Marquis. Jayson Werth hit what could have been a double play but instead got threw the drawn in Nats infield for a run.

Next Raul Ibanez slapped a true single for 2 more runs and then advanced to 2nd, with Werth going to 3rd on a stupid throw home. Marquis then hit Carlos Ruiz with a pitch to load the bases. Wilson Valdez followed with another ground ball that would have been a double play except it hit off the umpire, making it a dead ball another run as with the bases loaded Werth had to be awarded home. Next Roy Oswalt singled for another run and that was it for Marquis. Shane Victorino followed with another ground ball but again Washington couldn't turn two and Carlos Ruiz scored the 6th run of the inning.

Finally after that Placido Polanco hit another ground ball to end the inning. With a 6-1 lead Roy Oswalt put the Nats way with 5 scoreless the rest of the way and the Phils tacked on 3 more on a solo shot by Werth in the 5th, and 2 run bomb by Ruiz in the 8th to roll to a 9-1 win. It's Oswalt's 13th and the Phils 87th as they reduce their magic number to 12 and stay 3 games up in the NL East.