The Philadelphia Phillies saw the return of Alec Bohm and Nick Castellanos to their lineup in an 11-9 victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday at Nationals Park. Bohm, who had been sidelined since July 19 due to a left rib fracture, contributed immediately with a three-run home run during a five-run second inning. He also singled, reached base on an error, and scored twice.
“Yeah, especially not being here for a while,” Bohm said. “It feels really good to contribute and help the team win a game. Happy to be back, happy to be healthy.”
Nick Castellanos rejoined the starting lineup after a scheduled day off and hit his 16th home run of the season—a Statcast-projected 428-foot solo shot in the sixth inning. He also doubled and scored a run, breaking out of an 0-for-16 slump.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson commented on Castellanos’ performance: “When guys are lofting balls to center field and the opposite-field gap I feel like they are right on it,” Thomson said. “That’s what he was doing two days ago. It was a good showing for him. I like where he is at right now.”
Bohm had been productive before his injury, batting .309 with 17 extra-base hits—including eight home runs—and driving in 33 runs over his previous 62 games.
“It’s huge because he was swinging the bat pretty good when he left,” Thomson said. “I know he got off to a slow start this year, but he constantly got better as the season went on, and his defense has been really, really good.
“He just lengthens our lineup out a little bit more. We don’t have JT [Realmuto] in there today, but with him and JT behind [Bryce] Harper, I think it’s pretty good protection.”
Trea Turner finished with two hits in four at-bats, scoring three times with one walk and one hit by pitch. Turner collected 15 hits during the road trip and is now one shy of reaching 1,500 career hits while hitting .366 over his last ten games.
“I feel like we’ve talked about that a lot this year where I have two, three good games and then have a tough 20, 25 at-bat stretch,” Turner said. “I made a good adjustment after the first game here. I felt way more consistent. I felt like I could hit a lot of different pitches and different locations and the at-bats got pretty good the last three days. So, kind of stick with that and keep finding first base and let those guys behind me drive me in.”
Bryce Harper added two RBI singles for Philadelphia.
Aaron Nola returned from injury but struggled in his first start since May 14; he allowed six runs in just over two innings pitched.
“Body felt good,” Nola said. “Rib and ankle felt good, arm felt really good. I just had trouble stopping it today, either a swing and miss or [hitting] a ball to one of our guys. I didn’t get to the spot [that] I really needed to, and they capitalized on it.”
Reliever Tanner Banks earned his fifth win by pitching nearly two scoreless innings out of the bullpen while Max Lazar allowed late runs before Jhoan Duran entered for his 21st save—just days after being struck by a comebacker.
Duran ended any comeback hopes by striking out James Wood with fastball velocity reaching nearly 102 mph.
