• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Phillies look to keep rolling against Nationals

Sep 21, 2007 - 2:05 PM Philadelphia (83-70) at Washington (68-85) 7:05 pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- The Philadelphia Phillies are doing everything they can to stay in the National League playoff race.

The red-hot Phillies aim for their eighth win in the last nine games when they continue a four-game series against the Washington Nationals at RFK Stadium on Friday.

The Nationals are having a direct say in who wins the National League East Division despite having been eliminated from contention weeks ago. They won two of three games from the NL East Division-leading New York Mets earlier in the week and held a four-run lead over Philadelphia on Thursday before suffering a 7-6 loss.

The win moved the Phillies 1 1/2 games behind the Mets (84-68) in the East and kept them 2 1/2 games behind the San Diego Padres (85-67) in the wild card race.

Jayson Werth belted a pinch-hit three-run homer to highlight a four-run seventh inning and Jimmy Rollins plated the go-ahead run with a double in the following frame for Philadelphia, which has not reached the postseason since 1993.

The Phillies will look to keep rolling Friday behind righthander Adam Eaton (9-9, 6.36 ERA), who owns the dubious distinction of having the highest ERA among all major leaguers with at least 152 innings pitched.

Eaton has not earned a win since July 20 at San Diego and has allowed less than four runs in a start just twice over his last 11 outings.

Washington counters with righthander Shawn Hill (4-4, 3.01). The 26-year-old has been tough in a pair of starts against Philadelphia this season, going 1-0 while allowing a total of two runs and five hits in 14 innings.