Phillies Sweep Braves to Close Homestand
By Matt Veasey
The Philadelphia Phillies came from behind to defeat the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park, earning a series sweep.
On a scolding hot South Philly afternoon at Citizens Bank Park, the red-hot home team got a huge homer from an unlikely source to rally from behind and defeat the Atlanta Braves by a 4-3 score, sweeping a three-game series with the division rivals.
Shortstop Freddy Galvis, one of the few Phillies players who had not begun hitting in recent weeks, delivered that huge blow.
Facing a 2-2 count against Braves closer Arodys Vizcaino with two outs in the bottom of the 8th, Galvis drilled a no-doubt-about-it home run well into the stands in left-center field, pulling the club from a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead that would hold up.
The Phillies had earlier received another strong start from pitcher Jeremy Hellickson, who is working to make himself attractive to contending teams as the MLB non-waiver trade deadline arrives at the end of this month.
Hellickson allowed just four hits over six innings, striking out three and walking two batters. The Braves dinged him for solo runs in both the 3rd and 6th frames.
In the 3rd, a single, an error, and a walk loaded the bases. Then with two outs, Hellickson walked the Braves biggest threat, 1st baseman Freddie Freeman, to force in the first run of the afternoon.
The Phillies got that one back in the bottom of the 5th when the club’s lone NL All-Star, center fielder Odubel Herrera doubled home Cesar Hernandez. Both players remained among the team’s hottest hitters, each delivering two more hits on the day.
In the top of the 6th, Adonis Garcia, who had a 3-hit game for Atlanta, doubled home Jeff Francoeur to push the Braves back in front by a 2-1 score.
That lead didn’t last long, as Maikel Franco crushed his 17th home run to knot it at 2-2 in the bottom of the frame. It was a fourth consecutive game homering for the 3rd baseman, something that no Phillies player had accomplished since Ryan Howard back in September of 2012.
The game remained deadlocked to the top of the 8th when Hector Neris (3-3) allowed a two-out double to Garcia that again scored Francoeur, putting the Braves back in front by 3-2.
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Franco began the bottom of the 8th by working a full-count walk. He then moved to 2nd base when Carlos Ruiz grounded a base hit past shortstop, putting the tying run in scoring position with nobody out.
However, Tommy Joseph then followed by grounding into a 5-4-3 doubleplay. Franco rolled over to 3rd base on the play, putting the tying run just 90 feet away, but now with two outs.
That was when Galvis stepped in for his heroics. Batting left-handed, he worked the count to 2-2. Vizcaino (1-4) then came down and in, but caught a little too much of the plate. Galvis turned on the pitch, blasting what proved to be the game-winning home run.
“What can you say about Freddy?” said manager Pete Mackanin in his postgame presser. “He needed a couple of hits, and he got them. The home run obviously was huge. Nice to come back like that after getting behind.”
The Phillies have now pulled within six games of the .500 mark for the first time since the middle of June by winning their fourth straight game. The team has also won 10 of its last 13, and has scored at least four runs in 13 of their last 15 games.
The Phils will now travel out west to Colorado and a four-game long weekend series in Denver at Coors Field against the host Rockies. This coming series will be their final before a four-day break from next Monday through Thursday due to the MLB All-Star Game festivities.