The Philadelphia Phillies will open an essential four-game homestand against the meeting Washington Nationals with a rookie right-hander on the mound.
Spencer Howard, one of the most valued possibilities in the association, will hope to proceed with the Phillies’ ongoing surge in his fourth beginning of the season.
Despite the fact that the Phillies fell 12-10 Sunday night to the Atlanta Braves, they energized from a 10-0 deficiency and still took two of three in the series.
Howard, who’s 0-1 with a 6.17 ERA, presently can’t seem to pitch in excess of 4 2/3 innings in any of his three beginnings.
He will make his first beginning since Aug. 20 and he understands that he should order the entirety of his pitches to be successful.
“Probably some of it stems from not locating offspeed as well so these teams tend to gear more towards the fastball,” Howard said. “I’m just trying to get back to where I can have good locations with all my pitches.”
Regardless of an unpleasant start, the youthful pitcher as of now has a lot of help from the whole association.
“He’s got big-league stuff,” Bryce Harper said of Howard. “Everybody knows that. It’s just trying to hone it in, calm it down a little bit. He’s going to be just fine for us. We’re very excited about what we’ve seen. He just has to get comfortable and have some fun. Enjoy his time. He’s a guy that’s going to be a dude for us.”
The Phillies had their five-game series of wins snapped on Sunday however got home runs from Rhys Hoskins, Roman Quinn and Andrew McCutchen.
The defending World Series champion Nationals keep on battling as they’ve lost five of six, including a 9-5 setback Sunday against the Boston Red Sox.
Yet, Trea Turner extended his hitting streak to a career-best 15 games. Eric Thames and Josh Harrison each homered for Washington.
Be that as it may, the Nationals barely take after a similar team as the one commending a World Series last season.
“We never panicked last year, even when we were 19-31 and all that stuff in May,” Nationals relief pitcher Sean Doolittle said. “As rough as things are right now, guys aren’t panicking.”
Manager Dave Martinez said that he’s encouraged by the lineup.
“We’re starting to swing the bats,” Martinez said. “We’re scoring runs. We’ve just got to get our starting pitching figured out and then we’ll go from there. But the lineup is starting to swing the bat.”
Erick Fedde (1-2, 3.57 ERA) will begin against the Phillies for a second consecutive time.
Fedde kept going five innings on Aug. 25 and surrendered seven hits and four runs. In six career appearances against the Phillies, with five beginnings, Fedde is 2-2 with a 4.78 ERA.
“He pitched well,” Martinez said of Fedde’s last outing. “He fell behind a couple times, worked his way out of some jams with the double plays. When he’s throwing ground balls, that’s when I know he’s pitching well.”
This will be Fedde’s seventh game this season and his fourth beginning.
“I think in the first couple innings I had a lot better fastball command than I probably did there at the end,” Fedde said following his last start. “It started off the way I liked, and had a couple double plays, which are my best friend.”
— Field Level Media
