Phillies Blow One vs Last Place Braves
By Matt Veasey
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | |
| Braves | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| Phillies | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
The Philadelphia Phillies dropped the opener of a three game weekend set to the visiting Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park on Friday night.
The Phillies bolted out to an early 4-0 lead, then watched as the worst team in the National League by record, the division rival Atlanta Braves, rallied first to tie with one big rally and then to win with another.
The 8-4 loss was a fourth straight defeat for the no longer Fightin’ Phils, their sixth in seven games, and their 11th loss in the last 15 games.
The club dropped to 60-74, leaving them 14 games below the .500 mark for the first time this season.
It began well, as Ryan Howard, who apparently talked himself back into starting opportunities in a meeting with manager Pete Mackanin, brought home Cesar Hernandez with an RBI double to give the Phils a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st inning.
In the 2nd, the Phillies jumped on Braves starter Joel De La Cruz for three more thanks to newcomer A.J. Ellis‘ three-run home run. The catcher, acquired in last week’s trade of Carlos Ruiz to the Dodgers, ripped just his 2nd of the season to make it a 4-0 lead.
And then the offense dried up, at least for the home squad. De La Cruz would yield just two hits and a walk over the next four innings, keeping the Phillies off the scoreboard and allowing his club a chance to come back. Come back they would.
The Braves finally got to Phils starter Jeremy Hellickson in the top of the 5th inning with four runs to tie it up. Hellickson had escaped a bases loaded jam back in the top of the 1st, and allowed just one walk after that heading into that 5th inning.
In the visiting 5th, Gordon Beckham led off with a double and scored on an RBI single from Ender Inciarte. Then with two outs, Hellickson walked Freddie Freeman on a full count pitch. He would pay dearly, as the next batter, veteran Matt Kemp drilled a game-tying three-run homer.
Hellickson would get through six innings on the night. In the end his line showed that he had allowed just five hits and struck out six. However, he also walked three batters, and looked shaky for at least half of the outing.
The two bullpens then kept things even at 4-4, and Mackanin chose to send out his closer, Jeanmar Gomez, in a tie game for the top of the 9th inning.
Gomez (3-3) simply didn’t have it on Friday night. Inciarte and Adonis Garcia led off with singles, and Freeman doubled to bring home Inciarte with the go-ahead run. Kemp then singled to score Garcia and it was 6-4 in favor of the visitors.
Mackanin removed his closer at that point, but the next pitcher, Colton Murray, was no more successful. Nick Markakis greeted him with a double to score Freeman. When Tyler Flowers then followed with a sac fly to score Kemp it was 8-4, and that was the ballgame.