Kyle Schwarber’s two homers power Phillies to 8-4 win in Game 1, but the Nationals strike back in Game 2

This Phillies team tends not to put itself in the easiest of positions. So it should not come as a shock that in Game 2 of Tuesday’s doubleheader, while up 4-2 in the seventh inning, reliever Jeff Hoffman allowed a two-run home run to the Nationals’ Joey Meneses to tie the game at 4-4.

In the ninth inning, Craig Kimbrel allowed a solo home run to Meneses to give the Nationals a 5-4 lead. Down to their last three outs, Kyle Schwarber grounded out, Nick Castellanos struck out and Bryce Harper struck out.

It was not the Phillies’ best bullpen game, which makes sense, given how many close games they’ve had over the past few weeks. Combine that with the absence of José Alvarado, who is still on the injured list, and the result is a seven-man bullpen that is showing some wear and tear.

It was a demoralizing way to end a mostly positive day of baseball. The Phillies are 10 games over .500, with a record of 62-52. They won Game 1 against the Nationals, 8-4, and lost Game 2, 5-4.

Here are a few observations from the doubleheader.

The Phillies were waiting for this version of Schwarber to show up. For the past few weeks, their leadoff hitter hadn’t been hitting much at all. Entering Game 1, Schwarber had just seven hits over his last 78 at-bats with 22 strikeouts. He walked 21 times in that span, which was encouraging, but hit only two home runs.

There’s reason to believe he’s turning a corner. On Sunday, Schwarber had a three-hit game, including a home run, and on Tuesday, in the Phillies’ 8-4 win in Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Washington Nationals, he went 2-for-4 with five RBIs. Both of his hits were home runs. In the third inning, he hit a 363-foot, two-run shot to right field, and in the fourth inning, he hit his 30th home run of the season, a towering, 447-foot shot to right center with two men on base.

“Obviously, the hits are good, homers are good, but you still want to be able to work the at-bats,” Schwarber said. “Work the counts, things like that. Still get on base. You drive in runs, that’s great, but you also want to get on base for those guys as well.”

» READ MORE: Major league call with Phillies comes for a grateful Weston Wilson after seven seasons in the minors

Schwarber went 0-for-3 with two walks in Game 2. Harper, who went 0-for-4 in Game 1, hit a two-run shot in the fifth inning of Game 2 to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead. It was his second home run in his last three games.

“His swing really looks good right now,” manager Rob Thomson said of Harper. “It looks like he’s on everything. He’s fouling some balls straight back. I just think his swing is in mid-season form right now.”

Trea Turner batted seventh in Game 1 but was moved to the four-hole in Game 2. He went 2-for-4 in Game 2, hitting a sharp line drive double to center field in the first to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead, and a two-out ground ball single to shortstop in the fifth. Turner beat out the throw to first, stole second base, and scored off a Bryson Stott single in the next at-bat, showing off one of his signature slides.

It was an encouraging sign from an offense that hasn’t lived up to its potential for much of this runs on eight hits in Game 2. The Nationals, who have a combined 4.68 starters ERA and a 5.13 bullpen ERA, don’t have the most formidable pitching staff. But the Phillies capitalized on the visitors’ mistakes, which isn’t something they’ve consistently done against lesser opponents.

“Whenever you put the ball in the seats, that’s instant offense, so it’s good,” Schwarber said. “I think the biggest thing is not going out there and trying to do it. It’s just happening. When we try to do too many things, that’s when bad things happen. So, I feel like the consistency of at-bats have been really good for everyone, the whole team.”

It was clear early on that Zack Wheeler didn’t have his best stuff in Game 1. After a breezy, seven-pitch inning in the first, he hit a snag in the second, throwing 26 pitches and allowing a solo home run to Keibert Ruiz on a fastball up.

He labored through his next inning. Wheeler allowed a double, a two-run home run to Lane Thomas, and two more singles in the third to give the Nationals an early 3-0 lead. But he allowed just one more hit over his next three innings. He said after the game that the Phillies thought he may have been tipping his pitches.

“I just changed up some stuff that I was doing,” Wheeler said. “We thought that I might have been tipping. So, they’ve been hitting me well this year. We just felt like it was time to change a little bit of something. So I did that, and once I did that, the next few innings were better.

Wheeler needed 95 pitches to get through six innings, allowing seven hits, three earned runs, and two home runs with no walks and six strikeouts.

Suárez cruised through his first three innings in Game 2, allowing just a single and a walk, but when he found trouble, he didn’t bounce back as dominantly as Wheeler did. With two outs in the fourth, Suárez allowed a two-run home run to Ildemaro Vargas. After a 1-2-3 fifth, he allowed three singles to load the bases in the sixth with two outs.

“It was OK,” Suárez said of his start. “I felt like I could have thrown more innings. But that’s what it was today.”

Hoffman entered in relief of Suárez in the sixth. Suárez allowed six hits, two earned runs, two walks and one home run with five strikeouts. He threw 95 pitches.

Rojas made two leaping grabs in Game 1. The first came in the first inning and the second came in the ninth, when Rojas caught a hard-hit fly out at the wall to rob Alex Call of a hit.

“He’s good,” Wheeler said of Rojas. “He’s very good. He’s young, he’s raw, he’s very good, though. He comes to play, he plays hard. He’s putting together really good at-bats for a young guy. Sometimes, a team like us, we need a little young injection and he brings that to the lineup. So that’s nice.”