WASHINGTON (AP) — Bryce Harper, still hearing boos at Nationals Park all these years later, doubled twice and singled in a run to back Aaron Nola’s 5 2/3 scoreless innings, helping the Philadelphia Phillies beat
Washington 4-0 on a chilly Friday night. Another former player for the Nationals, Kyle Schwarber, contributed a two-run single in the second inning for the visitors. Nola (1-1) allowed a pair of hits in the third inning and a total of four walks and otherwise was in command after allowing six earned runs in his first start of the season — so his ERA went way down, from 14.54 to 5.40. Washington’s batters had zero hits after the third in front of a crowd announced at 21,374. Harper won NL Rookie of the Year honors and the first of his two NL MVP awards while with Washington, before leaving for Philadelphia as a free agent after the 2018 season. The Nationals won the World Series the following year — and have finished in last place every year since. Harper delivered doubles in the first and third innings, and drove in a run in the seventh with his third hit. All of those came against Patrick Corbin (0-1), who gave up four runs and nine hits in six innings. One blip for Harper came when he got caught in a rundown between third and home and eventually was tagged out for what officially went into the books as a “caught stealing” scored 1-3-4-1-5-2-3. The Nationals fell to 2-5, hurting themselves with some questionable baserunning in the third inning — CJ Abrams got thrown out at second by first baseman Harper trying to stretch a single into a double while Luis García Jr., who doubled earlier, remained at third base — and a second throwing error in three games by rookie third baseman Trey Lipscomb. The Phillies went into Friday ranking 21st of 30 major league clubs in batting average at .223 and 20th in OPS at .660. They had scored only 25 runs through six games, an average of 4.17; if you took away their two previous wins, they had just 11 total runs across their four losses, an average of 2.75. Sitting in the visiting dugout before the game, manager Rob Thomson dismissed the idea that the early season chill in the air — the temperature was 48 degrees at first pitch and several players wore balaclavas — might be affecting his batters. “Sometimes that’s an excuse. And I don’t like to use excuses,” Thomson said. “Some guys are off to a decent start. … It just hasn’t all come together yet,” he said. “But it will.” TRAINER’S ROOM Phillies: RHP Taijuan Walker, on the 10-day IL with a shoulder injury, is slated to throw two innings of batting practice at Nationals Park on Saturday. … RHP Orion Kerkering was scheduled to throw one-plus inning at Class A Clearwater on Friday. UP NEXT The Phillies send LHP Ranger Suárez to the mound against Nationals RHP Jake Irvin. Each pitcher enters the game with a 0-0 record and 5.40 ERA. ___ AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb