Roy Halladay proved once again why he is one of the top pitchers in all of baseball. The Braves had no answer after a Chipper Jones first inning homer, his sixth of the year. Halladay and Derek Lowe were locked in a semi-pitchers duel for most of the night, but the Phillies came out on the top due to hits from unexpected players.
Lowe was allowing base runners throughout the game, seven in total, but was able to keep the Phillies off of the board until the bottom of the sixth. Lowe left a sinker up to Jayson Werth who hit a rope of a single into left field, and then Greg Dobbs unloaded his second home run of the season to make the score 2-1.
The game only lasted 2 hours and 14 minutes. Doc had his nastiest stuff going all night, striking out seven and walking just one. The Braves had a chance against Roy in the eighth after Gregor Blanco lead off with a bunt single, but he was caught stealing on a missed hit-and-run by Brooks Conrad. Blanco looked safe on the replay, but the call was made and the Braves never got another runner on base.
In the top of the ninth, the Phillies added an insurance run against Jonny Venters. Venters came in to face Raul Ibanez and Ryan Howard but allowed back-to-back singles up the middle. A few plays later, the Phillies tried a suicide squeeze and the Braves were in nearly an identical situation as they were against the Marlins on Friday night. With Venters on the mound once again, McCann wisely ran the runner closer to the base and Chipper Jones was able to make the tag. On the subsequent batter, Juan Castro singled to left side as Jayson Werth was stealing third. Chipper was darting to the bag and was unable to switch directions quick enough to get back to the ball quick enough and Werth came around to score.
This was an expected loss, although the Braves did have a good chance to win this game until the homer by Dobbs. At that point, it was easy to lose confidence. Some days Roy has his stuff, and after that Chipper homer there was no getting to him. Brian McCann did stay hot, however, adding two hits. It was the third consecutive game that McCann had two hits.
Up Next: Jair Jurrjens (1-3, 5.59 ERA, 5.16 xFIP) vs. Cole Hamels (6-7, 4.07 ERA, 3.82 xFIP)