As news broke of Bryce Harper signing with the Philadelphia Phillies, one Nats reporter noted:
Bryce Harper in 2017, photo by Keith Allison (via Wikipedia)
That got me thinking: how many games have the Nats and Phillies played against each other? How have the Nats fared? How will the Nats do against the Phillies without Bryce?
Well, I have answers to the first two questions. Only time will tell the answer to the third question.
Baseball Reference provides stats for each team’s season. So, here’s how the Nats have fared against the Phillies since 2005 (when the Expos moved to Washington, DC, and became the Nats):
- Games played: 260
- Games won: 125
- Games lost: 135
- Runs Scored: 1,109
- Runs Allowed: 1,143
- Extra innings games played: 29 (14 10-inning games, 5 11-inning games, 5 12-inning games, 2 13-inning games, and 2 14-inning games)
- Extra innings games won: 15
- Double headers played: 5
- Double header games won: 5
- Double header games lost: 5
- Games decided by walk-off: 29
- Number of walk-off wins: 17
Basically, the Nats and Phillies have been pretty evenly matched, though the Nats have lost a few more than they have won (125 wins to 135 losses) and the Phillies have outscored them 1,143 to 1,109. The Nats have a few more wins determined by a walk-off (17) than the Phillies (12).
How have individual Nats pitchers done against the Phillies? Here are the records of a few current and former Nationals pitchers:
- Tyler Clippard: 2-5
- Ross Detwiler: 3-3
- Erick Fedde: 2-1
- Gio Gonzalez: 11-7
- John Lannan: 3-13
- Jason Marquis: 1-4
- Tanner Roark: 6-9
- Max Scherzer: 8-1
- Stephen Strasburg: 10-2
- Jordan Zimmermann: 6-8
So, three of the four guys with winning records against the Phillies (Fedde, Scherzer, and Strasburg) are still with the Nats. They should try get the fourth guy back (Gonzalez) – they’re gonna need all the help they can get against the Phillies now.
Happy Stat-urday!
~ baseballrebecca
The Baseball Sociologist 