No team goes undefeated in the major leagues -- a lesson learned by the Phillies Thursday afternoon when they dropped their first game of the season.
Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick put his team in a hole giving up five runs in as many innings. But, the Phils would come back before taking the loss.
Ryan Zimmerman drove in the tiebreaking run off new Phillies reliever Nelson Figueroa with a blooper to shallow right that landed inches fair, and the Washington Nationals edged the Phillies 6-5 on Thursday to avoid a season-opening, three-game sweep.
After losing its first two games of 2010 by a combined score of 19-5, Washington kept taking the lead Thursday, then giving it away. The Nationals began about as well as possible: They turned three of Kyle Kendrick's first five pitches into hits, eventually going ahead 3-0.
Nyjer Morgan led off by tripling to the gap in right-center, Cristian Guzman lined an RBI single to center and Zimmerman smacked the first pitch he saw off the wall in left for a double.
Kendrick then settled down, retiring nine consecutive batters, until Adam Dunn led off the fourth with a single. One out later, Harris' homer put Washington ahead 5-2.
Two runs for Philadelphia in the fourth made it 5-4. Placido Polanco singled, and the ball skipped past center fielder Morgan for a two-base error, allowing a run to score to make it 5-3. Polanco wound up on third, and then scored on Ryan Howard's single.
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The Phillies could have had more, because Werth followed with his third double of the game, but Howard strayed too far off third rounding the bag and was tagged out on a play scored 7-4-5-2.
Kendrick left after throwing only 55 pitches across four rough innings. He allowed five runs and six hits.
Washington's Craig Stammen was barely better, lasting five innings, and giving up four runs and nine hits. What he didn't do was walk anyone, a rare feat for a Nationals pitcher, given that the team issued 17 free passes over the opening two games.
Willie Harris hit a two-run homer for the Nationals, and Tyler Clippard (1-0) earned the victory with 1 2-3 innings of relief. Matt Capps worked around Chase Utley's leadoff double in the ninth for his first save with Washington.
Figueroa (0-1), added to the roster Thursday after being waived by the Mets, walked pinch-hitter Alberto Gonzalez to begin the seventh. Two outs later, Zimmerman lobbed a ball barely beyond the reach of sliding right fielder Jayson Werth for his second double of the game.
There were plenty of empty seats Thursday night as attendance dropped to 20,217, after a sellout of 41,290 for opening day, then 27,240 for Game 2 on Wednesday.
Maybe that’s why the Nats management was so friendly to all those Phillies’ groups on opening day.
The Phils open a three-game set Friday night in Houston.
