BRANDON THE BRAVE
Phillips homers again; Atlanta beats Brewers
ATLANTA — Brandon Phillips is thriving in his Atlanta homecoming. He’s motivated to make it last as long as possible.
Phillips gave Atlanta the lead with a two-run home run in the third inning Saturday to continue his productive homestand, and R.A. Dickey threw seven strong innings as the surging Braves beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 at SunTrust Park.
Phillips has homered in three straight games after delivering game-winning hits in back-to-back games against Miami last weekend, early in the 10-game homestand. The 35-year-old second baseman is hitting .306 with seven homers this season, his first in Atlanta after being traded by the Cincinnati Reds.
“I’m just happy the Braves gave me the opportunity to come home and play in my hometown like this,” said Phillips, who attended Redan High School in Stone Mountain, part of metro Atlanta.
“Hopefully I can do it more than one year. Hopefully things can work out the way everybody in this clubhouse is thinking.”
A continued upswing by the Braves could make management more willing to keep Phillips past the trade deadline. The Braves (36-38) have won four straight games and nine of 12. Atlanta is only two games under .500 for the first time since having a 6-8 record on April 19.
Dickey (6-5) allowed one run in seven innings to improve to 5-1 at home this season. He had control of his knuckleball as he gave up five hits with one walk while winning his third straight home start.
“He was getting ahead of guys, working it both ways, more left to right than up and down,” said Milwaukee’s Travis Shaw, who said Dickey was even tougher to hit when shadows became a factor in the middle innings.
“Throwing consistent strikes like that makes it tough,” Shaw said.
The Brewers’ lead over second-place Chicago in the NL Central fell to half a game.
Phillips had two hits, including the homer off Matt Garza (3-4) into the Brewers’ bullpen behind the left-field wall. The homer drove in Ender Inciarte, who singled.
Jim Johnson gave up a single to pinch-hitter Jesus Aguilar with two outs in the ninth before striking out Lewis Brinson for his 15th save in 20 chances.
Garza allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings.
Keon Broxton started the game with a single off Dickey. He stole second and later scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by Hernan Perez. Dickey did not allow more than one baserunner in any inning after the first.
Phillips, who homered in four straight games with the Reds on May 4-7, 2016, celebrated his son Micah’s fourth birthday by wearing special cleats adorned with his son’s name and favorite cartoon characters. He and most Braves players also wore their pants cuffs up high, near the knees, because that is Dickey’s style.
“We had to do something different for R.A.,” Phillips said.