ATLANTA -- Matt Diaz's decisive RBI double highlighted a three-run eighth inning that the Braves used to complete a three-game sweep of the Phillies, 5-2, at Turner Field on Thursday night.
After making a key defensive play to keep the game tied in the top of the eighth, Brian McCann began the bottom half of the inning with the first of two consecutive doubles surrendered by Ryan Madson. Following Diaz's decisive double, Garret Anderson further damaged Madson with a two-run shot, the first pinch-hit homer of his career.
While notching their first four-game winning streak and moving to within two games of the front-running Phillies in the National League East, the Braves prevented the Phils from claiming their first lead of the game in the eighth, when Mike Gonzalez uncorked a wild pitch and then raced to plate in time to receive McCann's throw and tag Jayson Werth as he dove headfirst toward the plate.
Braves starter Javier Vazquez kept the Phillies scoreless until Chase Utley began a two-run sixth with a single and later advanced to second base when Werth concluded a nine-pitch plate appearance by getting hit in the back with a 74-mph changeup. Greg Dobbs followed with an RBI single off the center-field wall that ended Vazquez's evening.
While Peter Moylan was able to minimize the sixth-inning damage by inducing consecutive groundouts, he wasn't able to prevent the one run that handed a no-decision to Vazquez, who was charged with two runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. The hard-luck hurler is 1-3 with a 2.06 ERA in his past seven starts.
Braves first baseman Casey Kotchman provided Vazquez the game's first lead with a two-run, fourth-inning homer off Phillies starter J.A. Happ. It was Kotchman's first homer since May 8 and just the fifth he's hit in the 109 games he's played since the Braves acquired him from the Angels before last year's Trade Deadline.
_________
Source: MLB.com
Casey Kotchman's home run gave the Braves a 2-0 lead.
- Photo2 by Tim Evearitt