Braves beat Phillies to take series
It was an important series for the Atlanta Braves to win, and they won it. On Wednesday the Braves defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 7-5 to win the third and final game of their three-game series against their divisional rivals.
The Phillies were in the lead and looked to be on their way to a win until the Braves exploded for a six-run sixth innings, which gave them enough of a cushion to hold off Philadelphia.
Atlanta starter Kris Medlen picked up the win to improve to 6-1 on the year. Medlen wasn’t spectacular, but threw 6 2/3 innings and allowed four earned runs off of seven hits and two talks, while striking out five batters. The bullpen came in after that, with Takashi Saito allowing one run before Billy Wagner stepped up to throw a scoreless ninth innings, picking up his 19th save of the year.
Phillies’ starter Jamie Moyer had a solid evening until he was torn apart in the sixth. Having held the Braves to a run until then, he only managed to get one out while getting blown apart for six runs in the innings for seven runs in total. In relief the Phillies had much better help, with Danys Baez, Nelson Figueroa and Jose Contreras combining for 11 scoreless outs.
Homers lead the Braves
It was a three home run night for the Braves, including two by Martin Prado. He contributed solo shots in the first and the top of the sixth. Philadelphia had the lead until the sixth off of the strength of a Jimmy Rollins RBI double in the second, and a two–run shot by Ryan Howard in the fifth.
But in the sixth it was all Atlanta. After Prado’s homer, Brian McCann hit a bases-loaded double to knock in three runs. Before Moyer could be pulled, the very next batter Mark Diaz hit a two-run shot to put the game out of reach at 7-3. Philadelphia would score two more runs, but it was too late.
Manuel disappointed
Philadelphia Charlie Manuel was disappointed with his team’s inability to win the game and gain ground on either the Braves or their other divisional rivals, the Mets.
“We’re having a tough time right now,” Manuel said. “We’re kind of banged-up, but if we’re going to compete, we can’t be chasing two teams. People say we’re a second-half team. I’m not saying we’re not, but we don’t want to get too far behind.”
If Manuel was disappointed by dropping two of three to the Braves, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said he didn’t see too much to be excited about by his team’s success.
“It’s two out of three. That’s all it is,” Cox said
Starter Kris Medlen though was much happier with his team’s performance, particularly with the runs support he got to allow him to pick up the win.
"There's so much baseball left to play, but we're extremely happy to take a series from the Phillies," Medlen said.
Phillies now trail further
With the loss, the Phillies are in a deeper hole now, a full six games out of the lead in the NL East division. What’s worse is that they even trail the second place Mets by three games.
They’ve been known to be a second-half team in the past though, including a huge rally in the last 17 games of the 2007 season to capture the divisional title. But they’ll need to start winning games and catching up if they want either the divisional title or the wild card spot.
"We gotta start winning series, we gotta start playing better,” said Manuel. "If we're a second half team, like people say we are, it's time for us to kick it into gear."
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