Atlanta Falls to Philadelphia 4-2

Atlanta allowed two runs in both the fourth and eighth to the Phillies, and that was all Philadelphia needed to beat the Braves for the eighth straight time.

Braves starter Brandon Beachy was perfect through three innings, but that quickly changed in the top of the fourth. Placido Polanco singled with one out, and advanced to third on a double from Hunter Pence. Pence hit a little dribbler perfectly in between first and second that Freddie Freeman just watched go by. Ty Wigginton followed with a double to left field that Martin Prado overran, allowing it to keep rolling into deep left. That scored Polanco and Pence to make it a 2-0 game.

Atlanta got one of those runs back in the bottom of the fourth, as Brian McCann turned on a hanging change-up from Phillies starter Cole Hamels and deposited it into the right field stands for a solo homer.

Two innings later, the Braves managed to tie the game on a bases loaded sacrifice fly from Juan Francisco. It was a pretty impressive at-bat from Francisco, especially considering who he was facing.

The top of the seventh inning featured a pair of great defensive plays by the Braves. Tyler Pastornicky made nice snag on a liner at short, and Matt Diaz went a long way to chase down a fly-ball from Wigginton close to the wall in right.

Beachy was finished after that seventh inning, leaving with a line of 7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 K, 0 BB's. He threw 104 pitches, and 66 of them were for strikes. It was another really good outing for Beachy, even with the low number of strikeouts.

Jonny Venters entered in the eighth inning, and just had some really awful luck throughout the frame. John Mayberry Jr. dropped a ball in front of Diaz and reached second for a double with one out. Rollins followed with another bloop, this one a single to left to put runners on first and third. Venters struck out Polanco, but the ball (called a wild pitch, could have been a passed ball though) got by McCann, allowing Mayberry score from third to make it 3-2.

Victorino followed with a single that bounced off the leg of Venters, allowing him to reach. That again put runners on first and third for Pence, whose ground ball went perfectly between first and second for a single. His single scored Rollins, giving the Phillies a 4-2 lead. Kris Medlen then came on and finished the inning.

Antonio Bastardo, Chad Qualls, and Jonathan Papelbon combined to pitch a scoreless last three innings for Philadelphia. Game two of the series tomorrow night at 7:10 PM ET.