The Phillies continued their hot streak last night as they beat the Nationals by a final score of 9-5. The team is now two games above .500 at 55-53, and remain 1.5 games back of the New York Mets in the National League East.

Chase Anderson got the start for the team last night. Although he struggled early giving up three runs, he battled back and gave the team two solid innings to finish his night. He ended the game with 4 innings pitched, 3 hits, 3 earned runs, and 1 strikeout. Nothing flashy by any means, but he did make adjustments later in his start to put this team in a position to win. JD Hammer would get a quick appearance in last night’s game as well, throwing 0.2 IP, giving up just one hit.

The real story of last night was the offense. The Phillies have a tendency to sort of roll over once they go down early, and never find any momentum to mount a comeback. Last night was the complete opposite. Travis Jankowski would start the comeback in the top of the third with an RBI double, followed by RBI doubles from Jean Segura, Bryce Harper, and Rhys Hoskins. The Phillies official twitter put together a wonderful clip of all of those hits together, you’re welcome.

Chase Anderson would go 1/2/3 in the top of the fourth to finish his night, and the score would sit at 4-3 until the very next inning. The Big Fella stepped up to the plate after Bryce Harper singled, and man did he get a hold of this one.

Hoskins would give the Phillies a 6-3 lead with an absolute moon shot of a home run. Hoskins has been hot over his last 7 games, hitting .381 with three home runs, seven RBIs, a .905 slugging percentage, and an OBP of .458. The score wouldn’t change until the top of the 7th, as Didi Gregorious stepped to the plate.

Didi Gregorious has been struggling a ton lately. His swing speed wasn’t there, and it looked like he was just going through the motions the last three weeks. A consistent Didi is so important for this team come playoff time, and hopefully that home run got some confidence back in his game. Gregorious would make it an 8-3 ballgame heading into the bottom of the seventh.

Matt Moore was just unreal last night. Moore has struggled all year as a starter, lacking length on the mound and always seeming to get hit around. After recently being moved to the bullpen, Moore has continued to give this team quality innings out of the pen, and he did it again last night. He pitched four innings, allowing just three hits, two earned runs, and striking out three batters. I don’t know if it’s the move to the bullpen, the number change, or something else. But this version of Matt Moore is awesome, and hopefully it stays with the team for the remainder of the season.

As the games go on, the Bryce Harper MVP campaign seems to strengthen even more. If Harper was never hit in the face with a pitch earlier in the year, he could seriously be the front runner for the award at this point in time. Over his last 7 games, Bryce has nine hits, four RBIs, one home run, and is slashing .429/.571/.810 to go along with those numbers, which is just absurd. There is not a more dominant player in baseball right now, and it gets more and more fun to watch every at bat.

Matt Moore would run into a little trouble in the 9th, but Ian Kennedy would come in and close it out. The offense shined last night, and Matt Moore put the team on his back to solidify the win for the team.

The Phillies are now 53-55, two games above .500. With the Mets winning last night as well, the Phils still sit just 1.5 games back, and are looking for the sweep tomorrow. Aaron Nola (7-6, 4.30 ERA) and Joe Ross (5-9, 4.00 ERA) will square off at 4:05 in the series finale.

Who let the Phillies get hot? Sweep opportunity tomorrow, NEED IT.