Braves drop series to Phillies with 7-3 loss

For the 25th time in its last 39 games, Atlanta lost on the road. This time, the Braves fell behind early and couldn't rally back in a 7-3 loss to the Phillies that clinched the series win for Philadelphia.

The Phillies started the scoring right off the bat in the bottom of the first against Braves starter Kris Medlen. After a two-out single from Chase Utley, Domonic Brown singled to right field, allowing Utley to come in and score the first run of the game. Delmon Young's single to center two batters later was enough to score Brown and make it a 2-0 game.

Medlen came close to escaping a jam in the fourth inning as he recorded two outs after allowing a walk to Young and a double to Darrin Ruf. However, Ben Revere made him pay with a two-out triple to center that doubled Philadelphia's lead by scoring both Young and Ruf.

Down 4-0, Atlanta missed an oppourtunity to take a big chunk out of the deficit in the top of the fifth inning. After allowing just one hit through four innings, Phillies starter Jonathan Pettibone allowed a lead-off single to Brian McCann and a double to Dan Uggla that put runners on second and third. He then struck out B.J. Upton (who was ejected for arguing balls and strikes) and Chris Johnson for the first two outs of the inning. Medlen helped himself out with single to left that plated McCann and got the Braves on the board.

Andrelton Simmons hit a hard line drive right to Michael Young at third base for the final out of the inning.

Brown got the run back by hitting his 23rd homer of the season in the bottom of the frame. Pettibone left in the top of the sixth, finishing with a line of 5.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K. Medlen was also replaced in the bottom of the inning by Alex Wood with runners on second and third. Wood's wild pitch allowed both runners to score, making it a 7-1 game.

Medlen's final line wasn't pretty: 5.1 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 5 K.

A Chris Johnson homer and a RBI single from Jason Heyward cut things to 7-3 in the top of the seventh, but the Braves couldn't get any closer. For the game, Atlanta went 2-13 with runners in scoring position and left ten men on base.

<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2013-07-07&team=Phillies&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2013-07-07&team=Phillies&dh=0&season=2013">FanGraphs</a></span>