PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper had three hits, including a home run, and three RBI, and Joe Ross allowed three hits in 7 2/3 shutout innings to help the Washington Nationals to their best start in club history with a 9-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.
Jayson Werth added two doubles and three RBI and Michael Taylor also went deep for Washington, which improved to 8-1 to mark the best nine-game start since the franchise was born in 1969 as the Montreal Expos.
Ross (2-0) struck out five and walked two. The 22-year-old, facing the Phillies for the first time, retired 12 consecutive batters before Freddy Galvis’ two-out single in the eighth inning ended his night.
A day after becoming the eighth-youngest player in history to reach 100 home runs with a grand slam in a 6-2 win over the Atlanta Braves, the 23-year-old Harper belted his fourth home run of the season in the sixth inning to pad Washington’s lead to 9-0. The reigning National League MVP also made a highlight-reel, shoestring catch of Ryan Howard’s line drive in the fourth inning.
Howard led off the ninth by hitting a home run off Yusmeiro Petit.
The Nationals did most of their damage in the first inning when they battered Jeremy Hellickson (1-1) for five runs on six hits.
Hellickson’s outing was quite a turnaround for Philadelphia from the previous day when Vince Velasquez led the Phillies to their third consecutive victory by striking out 16 batters in a three-hit shutout of the Padres.
That outing helped the Phillies’ starters enter the day leading baseball with a 2.14 ERA, but that number jumped to 2.72 after Hellickson allowed five earned runs on seven hits in three innings.
The Phillies had won five of six and had limited the San Diego Padres to one run and 13 hits during their winning streak.
Every Washington starter, including Ross, had at least one hit for the Nationals, who managed 16 of them against Hellickson and relievers Brett Oberholtzer, James Russell and Elvis Araujo.
Taylor opened the game by driving Hellickson’s second pitch into the seats in left, and Werth broke the first inning open with a bases-clearing double to left-center. Hellickson labored through 45 pitches, 19 balls, in the opening frame.
Every player on both teams wore No. 42 during Major League Baseball’s annual Jackie Robinson Day celebration.
Washington right-hander Max Scherzer (1-0, 4.15 ERA) will oppose Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola (0-1, 3.21 ERA) on Saturday night.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.