The Nationals: the cure for all that ails the Phillies

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Playing against the last-place Nationals brought the best out of two Phillies who have been struggling lately. Both Brett Myers and Chase Utley played there best game in quite a while in leading the Phillies to a 2-1 win over the Nationals on Tuesday.

Myers had his best outing since early June as he went 7 innings and only gave up 1 run on 4 hits. Again, it was against the Nationals who can't hit, but it just might give him the confidence to return to form.

Utley supplied all of the Phillie offense in tonight's game, hitting a 2-run homer in the 3rd inning, his first homer since July 7th and just his third of the month. Utley nearly blew the game with a costly error in the 8th inning, but at least he had a good night with the bat. Perhaps his hip isn't bothering him anymore, or maybe it never really did, like Charlie Manuel said.

Anyone worried about the Phillies chances in staying at or near the top of the NL East will be happy to know the Phils will play the Nationals 11 more times this season. Washington is just awful. The Phillies will need to get the bats going a little more than they did tonight, but they could easily win 8 or 9 of those 11 games.