Phillies 5, Nationals 4
Phillies 5, Nationals 4: Domonic Brown delivered a walk-off RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth as host Philadelphia downed Washington.
After Jonathan Papelbon (1-0) blew his first save of the season on Chad Tracy’s game-tying pinch-hit home run with two outs in the top of the ninth, Ben Revere opened the bottom half with a single to center off Fernando Abad (0-2) and advanced to third on Jimmy Rollins’ single to right-center two batters later.
Pinch hitter Steven Lerud struck out for the second out of the inning, but Brown muscled Abad’s 2-2 fastball past shortstop Ian Desmond to give the Phillies their third win in their last 10 games and fourth walk-off victory of the season.
Ryan Howard went 3-for-3 – including his first homer in June – and drove two runs while Delmon Young added a two-run double and Brown recorded a pair of singles for Philadelphia.
Howard’s first home run in 17 games knotted the game at 1 in the second while his single in the fifth restored a two-run lead at 4-2 after Steve Lombardozzi’s RBI double one inning earlier. Desmond keyed Washington’s late rally with a run-scoring single in the eighth before Tracy delivered his third pinch-hit homer of the season.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Howard has 10 hits over his last 19 at-bats. … Desmond went 1-for-4 and is batting 20-for-52 in June. He has recorded at least one hit in 17 of his last 19 games, dating back to May 27. … Howard’s 16-game home run drought was one shy of his career long.