The Phillies continue to get baffled by mediocre pitching. Jair Jurrjens has owned them for his career, dropping his ERA to under 2.50 in his 10 starts against these Phils. He went 6.1 innings, giving up just one run to this potent lineup.
Cole Hamels was probably better, striking out 9 over 7 frames but because of two home run balls (one by Freddie Freeman, one by Alex Gonzalez), he left the game down 3-1 and got tagged with the loss, his second of the season. His off-speed pitches had great break on them and owned the meat of the Braves order all night. Tough loss for Cole because he did pitch so well.
Placido Polanco was responsible for both Phillies runs in the game and had a chance to tie it up with 2 on and 2 outs in the 9th, but against Craig Kimbrel he popped up to end the game. Polly finished 2-5 to bring his average up to a team-leading .366.
The Phillies lost the series 2-1, scoring just 5 runs in the three games combined. That won’t cut it. The good news is Chase Utley is hammering the ball down in Extended Spring Training and Domonic Brown has been mashing at Lehigh Valley. Dom is closer to coming back and with the 0-14 streak Ben Francisco is running with, they’ll need him pretty soon.
Next up for the Phils are the Marlins away. They still lead the NL with a 22-11 record, though the Fish are close behind.