Washington Nationals starting pitcher John Lannan in the seventh inning
of a baseball game in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009.
WASHINGTON — The Philadelphia Phillies hit five solo home runs — including three in the seventh inning — and became the 12th team in major league history with a 30-homer foursome in Tuesday night's 5-3 win over the Washington Nationals.
Raul Ibanez went long for the 29th and 30th times this season and Chase Utley hit No. 30, joining Ryan Howard (38) and Jayson Werth in Philadelphia's 30-homer club for 2009. Werth hit his 32nd, and Carlos Ruiz got his ninth for the Phillies, who snapped a four-game losing streak.
The power barrage overshadowed another good start from Pedro Martinez (4-0) and a rare hook in the ninth inning after another shaky outing from Brad Lidge. Ryan Madson struck out Ryan Zimmerman with the bases loaded and the winning run on first and retired cleanup hitter Adam Dunn.
The Phillies, who have the major leagues' highest percentage of runs from homers, became the first team since the 2006 Chicago White Sox to have four 30-homer hitters and accomplished the feat for the first time in franchise history.
Martinez, craftily mixing plenty of offspeed pitches with an occasional low-90s fastball, allowed three runs and seven hits with four strikeouts and one walks over 6 2-3 innings. The Phillies improved to 6-0 when the three-time Cy Young Award winner starts.
Brett Myers followed with 1 1-3 scoreless innings, but Lidge failed to capitalize on the vote of confidence he received before the game from manager Charlie Manuel. Lidge, who had his 10th blown save of the season in his last appearance on Saturday, retired one batter amid a single, a hit batter, a wild pitch and a walk.
Manuel then removed Lidge and replaced him with Madson, who struck out ninth-inning homer specialist Zimmerman and got cleanup hitter Dunn on a groundout to record his fifth save.
Werth and Ibanez homered in back-to-back at-bats in the seventh, followed two batters later by Ruiz, lifting the Phillies from what had been looking like another moribund offensive performance. The NL East leaders had scored only 23 runs in their previous 11 games and had gone 70 2-3 innings without having a lead of more than one run, causing them to lose ground in the race for home-field advantage in the playoffs.
Four of the homers came off John Lannan (8-11), spoiling an otherwise fine outing from the closest thing the last-place Nationals have for an ace. Lannan allowed only four other baserunners in his 6 2-3 innings.
Ibanez's multihomer game was his fourth of the season and second at Nationals Park. He also singled to finish 3 for 4 and is batting .463 with eight homers and 20 RBIs this season against the Nationals. He is 7 for 10 in his career against Lannan.
Willie Harris homered and doubled for the Nationals, who have lost nine of 10.
