Game 116: Phillies at Nats

Mark Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER

We don't know exactly when Taylor Jordan's season will come to a premature end, when the Nationals decide to shut down the rookie right-hander just as they did last year with Stephen Strasburg and the year before with Jordan Zimmermann. But the time is drawing close for Jordan, who enters tonight's start against the Phillies sitting on 131 combined innings this season between the majors and minors.

This will be Jordan's eighth big-league start, and perhaps the thing that has stood out most about him to date is his ability to keep the ball in the strike zone. He has issued only seven total walks since arriving in D.C., never more than two in any individual start.

Speaking of control artists, Cliff Lee gets the nod tonight for the Phillies. This is a guy who over his last 111 starts has issued 112 walks. Stop for a moment and think about that. It's mighty impressive.

Updates to come...

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, Ch. 9, MLB.tv
Radio: WJFK (106.7 FM), WFED (1500), XM 185
Weather: Partly cloudy, 82 degrees, Wind 7 mph out to CF

NATIONALS (55-60)
CF Denard Span
3B Ryan Zimmerman
LF Bryce Harper
RF Jayson Werth

Aggressive Nats take down Lee

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — As Davey Johnson described the quick-burst offensive attack his Nationals broke out Wednesday night in a 5-1 victory over Cliff Lee and the Phillies, the veteran manager noted the good vibe he got watching his guys hit in the cage some five hours earlier.

"I really like the way we took BP today," Johnson said. "We were real aggressive in BP, and we took it into the game. It was great."

Wait, how do would one even attempt to not be aggressive in batting practice?

"There's a big difference," Johnson insisted. "Sometimes we come into batting practice and we look like we try to hit everything to right field. Today we were hitting everything on the rooftops in left. We knew who was out there, and we knew he was gonna come in on us, throw the fastball and come at us. The guys approached him that way, and that was a great way to approach him."
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Instant analysis: Phillies 4, Nats 2

USA Today Sports Images

Jayson Werth's fourth-inning homer produced one of the Nats' two runs.

Game in a nutshell: The Ross Detwiler-Cliff Lee pitching matchup looked like a compelling one on paper, and it didn't disappoint. Each left-hander was both dominant and efficient for much of the evening, surrendering one early run. Then Detwiler folded in the sixth, allowing three runs, while Lee continued his excellence straight through the eighth. One night after producing a game-tying rally against the Phillies bullpen, there was no such drama for the Nationals. They went down quietly against Jonathan Papelbon and thus lost their third straight game, falling two games below .500. Most frustrating: Because the Braves were swept by the Mets in a doubleheader, there was an opportunity to gain 1 1/2 games in the standings. Instead, the Nats only gain 1/2-game, while the Phillies gain 1 1/2 and catch the Nationals for second place.

Hitting lowlight: The highlights were few and far between. Jayson Werth homered in the fourth. Jeff Kobernus homered in the eighth, the first of his career. In between, the Nationals barely did any