Braves top Phillies 2-1 behind excellent outing by Mike Minor

Tonight in Atlanta, Mike Minor shut down the Phillies with eight great innings. It was just one of those nights, folks. Aside from Chase Utley's solo homer, Minor completely suffocated the Phillies over eight innings, surrendering just four hits, no walks, and striking out nine. For a team that desperately wants to remain relevant in the playoff hunt (but is only relevant to the 2013 playoff hunt), the Phillies looked pretty dead in the water.

On the flip side, Joe Blanton pitched well enough to win, going seven strong innings, striking out 7, walking just one, and giving up two earned runs. He surrendered no home runs despite being prone to the long ball this year.

I would be more inclined to snark away at the evening's events, but I missed all but a couple of pitches that I saw at the Reading Phillies Corona Bar as I bought Franziskaner drafts for $5.75 and watched Trevor May and the Phillies and a thunderstorm tonight. A fangraph of playing out the string, and your recollections of what must have been a pretty frustrating game are behind the cut.

And, no, I did not see any plausible third basemen playing in Reading for the Phillies tonight.

Source: FanGraphs