Braves rally falls short in 4-3 loss to Phillies

The Atlanta Braves rallied in the ninth but fell just short with a 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Atlanta entered the ninth trailing 4-2 when Adonis Garcia led off the inning with a home run to left off of Phillies reliever Hector Neris just as a heavy downpour began at Citizens Bank Park. The Umpires called for the tarp as the game entered a 24 minute rain delay.

When play resumed, Neris got Freddie Freeman to fly out to short center while Matt Kemp lined out to right for the second out of the inning. Nick Markakis followed with an opposite field single and moved up to second on a hit by Brandon Phillips. Tyler Flowers battled Neris in an eight-pitch at bat but struck out on a tough splitter to end the threat and the game.

The Phillies jumped on top in the second inning when Freddy Galvis lined a ball off the glove of Bartolo Colon allowing Michael Saunders to score. Philadelphia added two more runs in the third on RBI hits by Aaron Altherr and Tommy Joseph.

Atlanta got on the board in the fourth as Garcia singled home Ender Inciarte to make the score 3-1. Freeman followed with a long home run to right center in the sixth to cut the deficit to 3-2.

The Phillies added an insurance run in the seventh on a soft ground ball by Maikel Franco that scored Cesar Hernandez.

Colon struggled a bit early but was able to hang around for seven innings while scattering 11 hits and four earned runs. He falls to 1-2 on the season.

Jeremy Hellickson turned in another solid performance for the Phillies allowing just three hits and two runs over seven innings to pick up his third win of the season. Neris allowed three hits and one run in the ninth but earned his second save of the season.

The loss is Atlanta’s fourth straight. The two teams will meet again on Saturday with Jaime Garcia matching up against Philadelphia right hander Jared Eickhoff.