The Braves didn’t really need two losses in three games to know what they were up against in the Phillies. But Sunday they got a reminder anyway in a 3-0 loss at Turner Field.
Pitching well isn’t going to cut it against a team with the ability to pitch great any given day like the Phillies have. Tell it to Derek Lowe, who just gave up two runs in seven solid innings Sunday and lost on a shutout by Cole Hamels and two Phillies relievers.
“I got out-pitched,” said Lowe, now 1-2 in three starts despite a 1.45 ERA. “I made a couple mistakes, he didn’t and that was it.”
Shane Victorino had managed only two hits in his first 24 career at-bats off Lowe, but he got three hits in three at-bats Sunday and finished the series 9-for-13 (.692). Victorino scored both runs off Lowe and all but sealed the game with his sixth inning solo home run to right field.
The Braves meanwhile, managed only four hits and five baserunners on Hamels while settling for their second shutout in six games. Lowe lost 1-0 on a two-hit shutout Tuesday to Yovani Gallardo in Milwaukee.
The post-game box score revealed six Phillies batters hitting .300 or better, and only one (Brian McCann) for the Braves.
“We’ve got to swing the bats,” said Braves third baseman Chipper Jones. “We’ve got a bunch of guys that are scuffling right now. It was a good series for us to get our feet wet and know what it’s going to take to beat these guys. And we’ve got some work to do.”
The Phillies (7-2) dropped the first game after the Braves ambushed Cliff Lee for 10 hits and six runs in 3 1/3 innings. But Roy Oswalt and Hamels combined to allow only one earned run in 13 innings in the last two games of the series.
Hamels was booed off the mound in Philadelphia last week after the Mets ran him in the third inning of his first start on six runs. He found Turner Field and the Braves a bit more hospitable.
He mixed a 95-mph fastball with his old devastating change-up, giving up four hits, one walk and striking out eight.
“Obviously he’s got his stuff back and he put it to us today,” said Braves second baseman Dan Uggla. “He was throwing every pitch he had for a strike and made some good pitches when he needed to.”
Late in the game if hitters tried to catch a fastball early in the count, that didn’t work either. Both Jones and Freddie Freeman grounded first pitches into harmless outs with two runners on and two out in the sixth and seventh innings.
“He made me inside-conscious the first couple at-bats,” Jones said. “I’m just in one of those stretches where every time I look change-up off of him, I get fastball inside and every time I look inside, I get the change-up. And his change-up is so good you can’t distinguish between the two.”
The Braves didn’t get a hit until Nate McLouth doubled to the opposite field over Raul Ibanez’s head with one out in the fourth inning. He was one of only six baserunners to reach for the Braves.
Martin Prado singled off Ryan Madson in the eighth but McLouth followed with a double play. And the Phillies put it out of reach with a run off rookie closer Craig Kimbrel in the ninth, his first run allowed in four appearances this season, though it was unearned.
Jimmy Rollins doubled for the first hit, baserunner and, eventually, run off Kimbrel this season. He broke from third for home with nobody out on a Ryan Howard groundball to short. Alex Gonzalez thought about throwing home but fired to first instead.
“We were playing halfway,” Gonzalez said. “And the groundball was a little bit to my glove side; you have to turn….He got a great jump, he went on contact. I didn’t want to make a mistake, make a bad throw, he’s safe at home. Make sure we get one.”
