The Braves got a big dose of Cole Hamels. It left the bitter taste of a loss.
The Phillies left-hander scattered four hits over seven innings as he befuddled the Braves en route to a 2-1 victory Saturday night at Turner Field. Jimmy Rollins’ two-run homer was all the offense Hamels would need in the impressive outing.
Hamels (4-5, 2.83 ERA) struck out nine and walked none as 71 of his 95 pitches were strikes before he was lifted in the eighth inning.
“That is what happens in the big leagues when you have a guy like that and you find him on his night,” said Chris Johnson, who had the Braves’ lone RBI. “We battled as best we could. You have to tip your cap some times in this league and this was one of those nights.”
The Braves (53-44) had a three-game win streak snapped as they dropped to 1-1 to start an 11-game homestand. They dropped back into a tie for first place in the NL East with the Nationals, who defeated the Brewers 8-3.
Rollins broke a scoreless tie when he crushed a Shae Simmons 2-2 pitch over the right field fence for a two-run homer in the seventh inning. It was Rollins’ 12th home run of the season and came ahead of a Grady Sizemore double.
The Braves answered in the bottom of the seventh as they pushed across a run on Johnson’s RBI double. His hit followed a double from Justin Upton. The two hits matched the Braves’ hit total through the first six innings against Hamels.
“There are a couple of guys in this league that do the same thing,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “They pound the strike zone with their fastball. And it’s not a straight fastball, it sinks and it cuts a lot to the right-handed hitters and it’s not an easy at-bat. He did that against us tonight.”
Hamels stymied the Braves through most of the first five innings. Tommy La Stella delivered the Braves’ first hit with a two-out double in the fifth inning. The only other Brave to reach pass to that point was Jason Heyward, who was hit by a pitch in the second inning. Tyler Pastornicky led off the sixth with a pinch-hit single but would be caught stealing.
The Phillies (43-54) had a couple of chances to score early off Braves starter Aaron Harang. They loaded the bases with one out in the third inning. Ryan Howard hit a fly ball to right field that Heyward caught and threw a strike to catcher Christian Bethancourt, preventing Hamels from scoring from third base. Marlon Byrd followed with an inning-ending fielder’s choice. Heyward also caught a Domonic Brown fly ball at the fence with one on in the sixth inning.
Harang pitched six innings and gave up five hits and three walks while striking out four.
“Sometimes you just really have to buckle down and make pitches when you need to,” Harang said. “One inning I get the (bases-loaded) fly ball with one out. Obviously, it’s a different scenario with the pitcher running at third compared to (Jimmy) Rollins or (Chase) Utley or someone. I was able to get out of that situation unscathed. It was a good old-fashioned pitcher’s duel, going back and forth with zeros and it was just going to come down to that one or two hits.”
Jonathan Papelbon needed just five pitches to get three outs in the ninth and earn his 23rd save for the Phillies. Ken Giles pitched the eighth inning in relief of Hamels and struck out two, bring the Braves’ whiff total to 11 against the Phillies.
“You got that third inning, fourth inning and you think ‘Man, this isn’t good,’” Johnson said. “It’s hard. We couldn’t get his pitch count up because he was throwing a lot of strikes. You couldn’t go up there and take pitches because you would have been down. If you go up there and swing his stuff is moving all over the place so you are down. It’s just one of those nights when you tip your cap to a really, really good major league pitcher.”
Chasen Shreve, called up from Double-A Mississippi earlier in the day, made his major league debut in the seventh and struck out Howard to end the inning. He became the seventh Braves player to make his major league debut this season.
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