Lannan struggles as Phillies lose

After nearly a two-hour rain delay, the Phillies went out and tried to take the finale of there series,
against the Atlanta Braves, however another awful start by John Lannan was all the Phillies needed, as Atlanta
went on to a 6-3 victory at Turner Field.
The Braves jumped all over Lannan in the bottom of the first inning, as Jason Heyward led off with a home
run to left center, his 11th of the season, and that gave the Braves, a 1-0 lead. Then, after Justin Upton
walked, Freddie Freeman lined a single to right. After a fly out moved Upton to third, Chris Johnson made it 2-0,
courtesy of a sacrifice fly to right.
In the bottom of the second inning, the Braves blew the game open. With one out, starting pitcher Brandon
Beachy, walked. Then, Heyward doubled to left after the ball deflected off of third baseman Cody Asche. Next,
Justin Upton walked to load the bases, and to further the bad night for the Phillies, Lannan left the game with
an apparent knee injury. Philadelphia, then brought in Zach Miner, yes that Zach Miner, and immediately gave up
a run, as Freeman hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored Beachy, and gave the Braves a 3-0 lead. After Evan
Gattis, was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Johnson hit a two-run single to center, and extending Atlanta’s
lead, to 5-0.
In the top of the 6th inning, the Phillies cut a deficit to 5-2, as Domonic Brown hit his 27th home
run of the year, a two-run shot to right.
Atlanta made it 6-2, as Phillies reliever Raul Valdes gave up a lead-off double to Andrelton Simmons,
and then scored one out later on a sacrifice fly by Paul Janish.
Philadelphia got a 9th inning home run by Darin Ruf, his 7th, making it 6-3, in a losing effort.
Beachy, who got the win, went six innings, gave up six hits, two runs, four strikeouts and no walks.
Lannan, had a disastrous start, going 1 1/3 innings, four hits, five runs, three walks.
The Phillies are off on Thursday, and then begin a long homestand, which starts this weekend against
the Los Angeles Dodgers.