Philadelphia Phillies allowing 17 runs to Washington Nationals embarrassing

Friday’s 17-7 loss against the Washington Nationals was arguably the worst loss of the 2018 season for the Philadelphia Phillies.

After hanging on for the 4-3 win over the Washington Nationals the day before, the Philadelphia Phillies were feeling confident heading into Friday’s meeting against their division rivals to help keep the NL East race tight.

Unfortunately, that confidence was eliminated early on in the game for the Phillies after the Nationals scored four runs in the first inning as a result of two home runs, and it didn’t get any better from there.

As if having to overcome an early 4-0 deficit wasn’t already frustrating enough, Philadelphia would go on to lose this game 17-7, with Washington finishing with seven home runs (two from Juan Soto) in the contest. While Nick Pivetta took most of the blame since the Phillies starter couldn’t even make it through two innings, and allowed seven earned runs before his exit, this was just an all around bad performance by Gabe Kapler‘s squad.

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The Phillies knew Pivetta faced a difficult challenge against the Nationals since May 21 was the last time he actually recorded a win, but it’s safe to say nobody saw a performance like this coming at all.

For the most part, it’s rare to see any baseball team hit the double-digit mark when it comes to runs scored, and seeing Washington end up with 17 runs on Friday was completely embarrassing for a team as good as Philadelphia.

Yes, the argument can be made this was only one contest, and there isn’t a reason to make that big of a deal since they could easily bounce back on Saturday, but it’s still frustrating to see from the Phillies.

In a division race that is already showing signs of going right down to the wire before October, Philadelphia needs every win they can get to keep the pace going with teams like Washington and Atlanta.

Remember that brutal 13-2 loss against the Milwaukee Brewers a few weeks ago? All of a sudden, that game doesn’t seem so bad when looking at the results of Friday’s loss to the Nationals.

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At least with two more games against Washington this weekend before having Monday off as they prepare for their next series against the Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia can still make up for what took place on Friday.