Braves sweep doubleheader in Bethancourt's first start

Christian Bethancourt got his first big league start and his first big league hit as the Braves took the second game of their day/night doubleheader with the Phillies. Tommy La Stella had a two run double and David Hale was effective as the Braves earned their third straight win over the Phillies.

Jordan Schafer lead off and got things off to a good start as he started the top of the first with a single. Schafer stole second and scored on a Justin Upton bloop single to put the Braves up 1-0 in the top of the first. The Braves would be stymied for much of the night by fill in starter Sean O’Sullivan but it wouldn’t matter as the Phillies were never able to do much damage against David Hale and the Braves bullpen. A Jimmy Rollins sac fly in the fourth to tie the game at 1 was the only damage the Phillies would do as the Braves continually stymied Phillies scoring chances.

Tommy La Stella doubled off the wall in the fourth inning to put the Braves up 3-1 which is all the Braves would need to secure their third straight win. La Stella had five runs batted in over the two games and gave his ISO a nice boost.

Chris Johnson had three more hits and five on the day. His single increased the Braves lead to 4-1 and it has been awesome seeing Johnson show some signs of turning things around of late. Whether he has changed his approach or just has had his babip luck return I’m not sure but his results have been markedly better.

Anthony Varvaro and Jordan Walden threw three shutout innings in relief and danced in and out of trouble. The Phillies had multiple chances to score but could never break through with the big hit to make the game competitive again. 26^th man callup Gus Schlosser pitched a scoreless ninth to  nail down the win. The Braves have won three straight games and five of their last six.

- Ryan Doumit hit a long home run ball which was nice to see. Doumit has been utterly meh this year so it’s always nice to see the lumbering outfielder really get into one.

- Christian Bethancourt was exactly as advertised. He has all the defensive tools but needs refinement. His bat is nowhere near ready for major league hitting and he needs to further refine his defensive tools into defensive skills before he is ready to play every day in the majors.

- Mark Derosa was utterly unbearable as an announcer.