PHILADELPHIA — The Washington Nationals on Sunday had one left-handed card to play out of their bullpen. With Rob Thomson stacking the Phillies’ lineup with six lefties, he intended to make it as hard as possible on his counterpart, Dave Martinez, to decide how to deploy that southpaw. When Robert Garcia got the call from the ‘pen in the fifth, it wasn’t to face Kyle Schwarber.
Or Bryce Harper. Or even Brandon Marsh. Instead, Martinez aimed Garcia at Kody Clemens, and Clemens responded by lacing a go-ahead, two-run double to right field.
That’s just the way things are going for the Phillies these days. That wouldn’t be the last blow in an 11-5 win, around 12 hits and a wholesale battering of the Nationals’ tired pitching staff to complete a sixth series sweep this season. And one mediocre (at best) team’s handling of the Phillies isn’t the most salient measuring stick.
But Clemens provided another indication of what has become common for the Phillies early in a season that’s starting to feel a little magical. Whoever finds their way into this lineup seems to have a positive effect, as the ever upwardly ticking win total shows. Clemens was the protagonist du jour this weekend.
He singled in the seventh inning Saturday, just the second Phillies pinch-hit all season, then bashed the game-tying homer to center with two outs in the ninth to set up Harper’s walk-off sac fly in the 10th. Sunday, Clemens added two doubles, one such a scorcher that Thomson said h.