Whip Out the Brooms: Phillies 7, Braves 6

The day game series finale saw the Phillies try to complete a four-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves. It was also the finale of the Phils’ ten-game home stand in which they went 6-3 over the first nine games.

The red alternate was the uniform of choice, and while I am a personal fan of these, I really do wish they’d rotate the retro unis in more. Discuss your uniform takes in the comments, if you wish.

As for the game...

Tommy Joseph got the scoring started in the 3rd inning when he singled to drive in Cesar Hernandez who tripled to right-center field to lead off the inning. Odubel Herrera then followed up Joseph by tanking a 3-run home run into the second deck in right field. Odubel then proceeded to flip the ever-living hell out of his bat.

It was tracked at 434 feet with a 106mph exit velocity and gave the Phillies a 4-0 lead after a nice offensive outburst in the 3rd.

Odubel has been on fire as of late. Maybe the people who are trying to run him out of town should sit back and enjoy the show.

Add those numbers — which date back to July 3 — to his line of .339/.380/.578 with 8 home runs and 20 doubles since June 3 and that makes for a fantastic turnaround after a very bad month of May.

Jump to the Phillies half of the 4th inning where they tacked on another run on Joseph’s third single of the day to make it 5-0. Tommy was 3-for-3 at that point in the game with the three singles and two RBI.

Aside from a bumpy yet scoreless 2nd inning, Nick Pivetta was cruising through his outing when the Braves finally got to him in the 5th inning. Danny Santana hit his second triple of the season with one out in the inning, then Johan Camargo drove him in with an RBI groundout.

The Phils got the run back in the 6th inning when Aaron Altherr grounded out to score Cesar — who singled to lead off the inning, stole second, and took third on a throwing error on a pickoff attempt by Braves reliever Ian Krol — to make the score 6-1.

Jesen Therrien appeared in his second game for the Phils since being promoted from Lehigh Valley. His first appearance went well; this one... not so much. Therrien recorded just one out in the 7th inning but also allowed a walk to Nick Markakis, a 2-run home run to Kurt Suzuki, a double to Santana, and an RBI single to Lane Adams before being pulled in favor of Adam Morgan. Those runs allowed by Therrien brought the score to 6-4.

Maikel Franco then drilled an upper deck home run of his own in the bottom of the 7th to extend the lead back to three, 7-4. It came on a 3-0 count and was tracked at 424 feet with a 109mph exit velocity.

Then the 8th inning came around and this is where things started to get dicey.

Freddie Freeman led off with a home run off Morgan to make the score 7-5. Morgan then got an out on a pop-up, walked Markakis, and was pulled. Luis Garcia entered and got Suzuki to ground out, but then allowed a single to Santana which put runners on first and second with two outs. Garcia then K’d Tyler Flowers on a 99mph fastball to end the threat.

Hector Neris got the call in the 9th and closed out the game, although not in the cleanest of fashions, for his 10th save of the season.

Some quick notes:

• Hyun Soo Kim recorded just one at-bat in his Phillies debut despite having four plate appearances. He walked in his first three PAs and struck out in his fourth before being subbed out as part of a double switch in the 8th inning.
• Maikel Franco, Tommy Joseph, and Aaron Altherr are now tied for the team lead in home runs with 16 apiece.
• Nick Pivetta closed out a five-game stretch in which each starter for the Phils went at least five innings and gave up one earned run or fewer (Nola: 6 IP, 0 ER; Thompson: 5 IP, 0 ER; Eickhoff: 5 IP, 1 ER; Velasquez: 7 IP, 0 ER; Pivetta: 6 IP, 1 ER)
• This was the first time the Phillies swept the Braves in a 4-game series at home since 1949