No more moral victories for last-place Braves

By David O'Brien

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

PHILADELPHIA -- The Braves couldn't take solace in having two fly balls caught on the warning track in the ninth inning, figuring they might have brought a different outcome had howling winds not reduced them to long outs.

They can no longer afford the luxury of solace.

It must only be about wins and losses now, and Sunday's game was another "L" -- a 5-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies that dropped the last-place Braves to six games behind the National League East leaders.

"Obviously two home runs would've tied the game and we'd still be playing," said Eric Hinske, who started the ninth with a towering fly to the center-field wall. "But we've got to find a way to get it rolling. We've got to go into Milwaukee and at least try to win a series. We can't keep going on the road and losing series or getting swept, or we're not going to be in the thick of it come … well, even at the trade deadline. We've got to start turning it around somehow."

The Braves are 5-14 on the road, and have hit .211 over their past 17 road games while averaging fewer than three runs.

They've lost five of six road series, and dropped two of three games apiece at Washington and Philadelphia on a nine-game trip that wraps at Milwaukee, beginning on Monday night.

"It stops being about feeling good and moral victories, and it needs to start being about results and victories," said left fielder Matt Diaz, who had another hitless day and couldn't take comfort knowing he hit two balls hard.

"I think, to a man in here, that's where we're at," he said. "Yeah, we're staying positive. We know we're better than we're showing. But at the same time, we're all equally fed up with it."

Kenshin Kawakami (0-6) has lost all of his starts. The fact that he pitched well after the third inning on Sunday didn't matter. He was shaky early and the Phillies built a 4-0 lead. He allowed five runs and seven hits in 6-2/3 innings, including solo homers by Placido Polanco, Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino. The latter's seventh-inning blast was the Phillies' only run after the third.

"Honestly, I deserve the 0-6 record," Kawakami said through his interpreter. "I haven't pitched well. Giving up those runs, there's no excuse for that. They got me run support today, three runs, but I still couldn't hold them."

It was the first time this season that Kawakami lasted more than six innings, and the first time the Braves scored more than two runs while he was in.

The Braves got all their runs in the fifth, when they batted around against left-handed starter Cole Hamels (3-2). They collected four hits in the inning, including an RBI single by Melky Cabrera and a two-run single by Troy Glaus. Cabrera came in with a meager .189 average, but hit third in place of injured Chipper Jones. The Braves had three hitters in their starting lineup with averages under .190.

The run that most disgusted Kawakami was the first one in the two-run opening inning, when he hit Werth with a pitch with the bases loaded after intentionally walking Ryan Howard.

Raul Ibanez followed with a routine fly to shallow right field that turned into a sacrifice fly when Cabrera got his feet crossed up and failed to even attempt a throw home.

"He got going the wrong way," manager Bobby Cox said. "He couldn't throw the ball. The wind, the sun, the whole works -- just trying to catch the ball and get in position is hard, and picking up the ball off the bat is really hard here. He was going the wrong way."

So are Cox's Braves, whose 13-18 record is the second-worst in the NL, ahead of only Houston (10-21). The Braves have won five of their past 18 games, and three of those were home wins against the hapless Astros.

"Going to Milwaukee, it'd be big to win two out of three," Diaz said. "It'd be huge to win three out of three. But we've got to start with a win tomorrow. Tomorrow's a big game for this road trip and for this month moving forward."