The Nationals’ starting pitcher tonight, Foster Griffin, recently returned stateside from his years with the Yomiuri Giants of Tokyo. By taking that journey, Griffin followed in the footsteps of Lafcadio Hearn, a resident of New Orleans who moved to Japan and became the author of the collection of ghost stories and tall tales known as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. This subtitle could also apply to the events of tonight’s game.
The start was inauspicious, and then unpleasant, and then outright
ugly. Taijuan Walker walked James Wood, and a light hit up the third base line gave Luis García Jr a double that was gentle on the ball, and less so on Phillies’ fans stomachs. A subsequent ball to Edmundo Sosa at second became an RBI when he threw it home in a thwarted attempt to stop a sliding Wood, and a ball hit through the left-side gap by CJ Abrams scored the second run.
The fact that many of the hits were on light contact was cold comfort. Drew Millas gently blooped one to shallow center, loading the bases. The next batter, José Vivas, hit it to about the same spot, but a little harder, and was rewarded with an RBI. A sac fly put the fourth run on the board in a sour inning.
Then the sour became the absurd. A grounder from Joey Wiemer seemed to end the inning when Walker raced to the bag to get the out. Realizing that the call was close, the Phillies made sure to tag Millas on the way from third to home, just in case. The subsequent challenge of the call at first resulted in Wiemer being ruled safe, and Millas being sent back to third. Thomson came out to voice his objection to the Millas call, and was then ejected. Don Mattingly took over. A punchout of Wood finally ended the dreary top of the first.
The Phillies bats took their first hacks against Foster Griffin. As Griffin wandered through Japan, he perhaps learned of the Tale of the Heike, a centuries-old narrative of a battle between the Taira and Minamoto clans. The opening line of said tale notes that the ringing of monastery bells evokes “the impermanence of all things”. Also impermanent were the Phillies, as they went down in order.
Kwaidan is full of stories about hauntings and curses. A haunting or curse perhaps explains all of the shallow bloops and seeing-eye singles that the Phillies surrendered in a silly second. It is rumored that Bryce Harper recently neglected to leave out an offering of cucumber for the river goblins known as kappa, and perhaps this is why he bobbled a ball at first, as a fielder’s choice allowed the Nationals to score their fifth run. It is also rumored that Trea Turner provided the wrong answer when the deadly spirit known as the Kuchisake-onna asked him if she was pretty. The folktale states that answering either yes or no will result in horrible maiming (the only way to escape is to be noncommital). In this case, however, she scarred only his pride, as he mishandled a ball in the top of the third. A series of fielders choices resulted in the Nationals taking a 7-0 lead.
Meanwhile, the Phillies offense remained quiet, posting just a pair of singles through four. Walker allowed a double in the fifth and was then replaced with Jonathan Bowlan. His final tally was 7 runs (6 earned) on 10 hits.
By the time the Phillies came to bat in the bottom of the fifth, the mood of the fans could be best described as disgruntled. But there are a few things that can help to restore the pluck of a phractured phanbase, among them being home runs and a big play from an unexpected source. The Phillies got both when Rafael Marchán hit a homer to left to score two and give the Phillies their first runs of the night. Turner doubled to left, Griffin plunked Kyle Schwarber, and Harper came to the plate, smashing a high arcing ball to right. For a moment, before the ball swung foul, it seemed like the mood might shift. Harper would end up grounding out. The moment was disappointing, but in a more mundane way than the oddity that had defined the earlier innings.
Strangeness, however, ended up reasserting itself. In the top sixth, Otto Kemp dove for a fly ball, seemingly catching it in an excellent play. The ball was hard to see as Kemp’s glove slid towards the wall, but replay confirmed the ball slipped out as he hit the ground. The final result was a double. An error from Sosa put the next runner on. An unusual 5-3 double play gave the Phillies some additional juice, but the Nationals singled to score their eighth, and then again to put runners on the corners. Both runners made to steal at the next at-bat, and while the final out of the inning was made between second and first, the Washingtons succeeded in putting another run across before the out was secured. This sort of trickery is usually reserved for yokai spirits, whom the Nationals may have hired as special, spectral assistants.
The Phillies finally got a lucky break of their own in the bottom eighth, as Brady House dropped an easy pop fly to allow Alec Bohm to reach second to lead off the inning. But the next three Phils made outs, and the Fightins entered the ninth in the unenviable position of down seven.
José Alvarado took the mound, and loaded the bases with a pair of singles and a walk. He walked another as the Nationals hit double digit runs, and another single allowed them to reach a dozen.
The Phillies then settled for the ignominy of a position player pitching, in the form of Dylan Moore. His eephuses (eephi?) wrapped up the inning with one more run scored, for a baker’s dozen (if Dusty Baker was still their manager, this would’ve been a clever bit of wordplay; alas). The bottom of the ninth saw the Phillies put a pair of baserunners on, but they ended the game with their pair of runs, and the grumblings of an unhappy Monday night crowd.
The Phillies are 1-3. The series against the Nationals continues tomorrow at 6:40, with Andrew Painter scheduled to make his MLB debut.
