After admittedly pressing early in his tenure with the Braves, Brandon Phillips showed on Saturday what he’s been for much of his career in the major leagues: a slick-fielding infielder with some power in his compact swing.
Phillips hit a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning and turned a key double play in the seventh to lift the Braves to a 4-2 victory over the Padres on Saturday at SunTrust Park.
“He’s always smiling, lot of energy, and he’s a good player,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We’re lucky to have him and you saw tonight what he’s capable of. He’s a dangerous at-bat.”
Early in this season Phillips has squandered run-scoring chances by failing to produce with men on base and he’d also been shaky in the field. This was not what the Braves had in mind when they traded for Phillips in February, nor was it what Phillips expected when he waived his no-trade rights to allow the deal to happen.
Phillips, a native of Stone Mountain, said he’s been trying too hard to make an impact with his new team.
“Of course you want to go out there and show the team what you’ve got but you just stay within yourself because you are who you are,” Phillips said. “Don’t try to be somebody you’re not.”
Phillips was 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position before Saturday. Phillips ended the third inning Saturday by hitting weakly to pitcher Clayton Richard with runners on second and third. He’d also grounded out to Richard in the second inning.
The game was still tied 2-2 when Philips faced Richard to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning. He reached Richard’s down-and-inside fastball and sent it into the bleachers for his first homer of the season.
“I saw a ball that I liked,” Phillips said. “It wasn’t the same pitch that I was hitting ground balls working on the (fielding practice) with the pitcher. I was very mad about those two at-bats. I went up there and said, ‘You know what, I’m going to try to hit this ball as far as I can.’”
Adonis Garcia followed Phillips with another homer to give the Braves a 4-2 lead. Phillips helped prevent the Padres from cutting into that advantage when he turned the superlative double play with shortstop Dansby Swanson.
Swanson cleanly fielded a ground ball from Wil Myers near second base. He flipped to Phillips, who caught it with his right hand and immediately whipped an off-balance throw to first base. Freddie Freeman picked the ball off a bounce to complete the double play.
“Swanson, he is coming (along) real good,” Phillips said. “He gave me good feeds and we are having fun. The one we turned today was very beautiful. Freddie made a nice pick. That was like a game-changer so I’m glad Freddie made us look good.”
The double play ended the inning and prevented Allen Cordoba from scoring from third base.
“If a run scores there all of a sudden you lose some of that cushion and all of a sudden things get a little bit more pressure-oriented late in the game,” Braves starting pitcher R.A. Dickey said. “(Phillips) has been doing it so long, nothing really surprises you.”
