• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Phillies look to continue late playoff run

Sep 23, 2007 - 1:42 PM Philadelphia (85-70) at Washington (68-87) 12:05 pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Ticker) - The Philadelphia Phillies look to continue their incredible success in September as they aim to complete a four-game sweep of the Washington Nationals on Sunday.

The Phillies have won nine of their last 10 games following Saturday's 4-1 victory in 10 innings, keeping them within 1 1/2 games of the National League East-leading New York Mets.

Philadelphia also closed one-half game behind the San Diego Padres in the wild card.

To prolong their their winning ways, the Phillies will turn to Cole Hamels (14-5, 3.59 ERA), who will be making just his second start since spending two months on the disabled list with an elbow strain.

In Tuesday's 7-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, Hamels lasted just three innings, allowing three runs and five hits.

Over eight lifetime starts against the Nationals, the lefthander is 3-2 with a 3.37 ERA.

Washington will counter with rookie Joel Hanrahan (4-3, 6.45), who will look to end a three-game winless streak. He absorbed his second straight no-decision on Tuesday in a 9-8 win over the New York Mets, surrendering five runs and seven hits over just three innings.

In his only other previous outing against Philadelphia, the righthander struck out a career-high eight batters over five innings but took the loss in a 4-2 setback on August 16.