Phillies Lose To Braves 6-4

The Phillies lost to the Braves 6-4 tonight, and fell to a season high 9 games under .500, and 14.5 games out of the NL East.

This game started out really well for the Phillies, when Darin Ruf crushed a solo homer to left field, which gave the Phillies the 1-0 lead in the second inning. Delmon Young followed Ruf’s homer, with a homer himself! Back to back homers for Ruf and Young, and the Phillies were winning 2-0. In the top of the third inning, the Braves pulled within one on a Jayson Heyward RBI single. The 2-1 score held until the 5th inning and then Justin Upton hit an RBI single, to tie the game. Later that inning, Brian McCann crushed an Ethan Martin fastball into the seats in right field, to give the Braves the 4-2 lead. That inning got even worse, when Chris Johnson followed McCann’s homer, with a long homer himself! The Braves ended up scoring 5 runs in the 5th inning, to give them the 6-2 lead.

This was definitely a major league debut to forget for Ethan Martin. He lasted only 4.1 innings, gave up 6 earned runs, and walked 3 batters. He was very sharp for the first three innings though, I liked what I saw from him. He had a great breaking ball, and a fastball that was reaching 97 miles per hour. He has major league stuff, and just needs to learn how to control it.

In the bottom of the 6th, Chase Utley crushed a Kris Medlen pitch over the fence in left center, to pull the Phillies within 3. The Phillies did score one more in the sixth inning, to make it a 2 run game. The Braves bullpen pitched 3 perfect innings to end the game, and the Phillies fell to the Braves by the score of 6-4.

Tomorrow, the Phillies and the Braves will match up again, and the starting pitchers will be Brandon Beachy (0-0, 17.18 ERA) for the Braves, and John Lannan (3-4, 4.10 ERA) for the Phillies.