Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Braves hold off Phils in wild one
PHILADELPHIA » Austin Riley homered, doubled and drove in three runs in Atlanta’s 10-run second inning, Dansby Swanson also went deep and the Braves held on for a wild 12-10 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday night.
Nick Markakis and Marcell Ozuna each added three hits and two RBIs for the first-place Braves, who avoided a three-game sweep and moved three games ahead of the Phillies and Miami in the NL East. Every Atlanta starter got at least one hit and scored at least one run.
Andrew McCutchen, Rhys
Hoskins, Didi Gregorius and Roman Quinn homered for the Phillies, whose five-game winning streak was snapped.
The teams combined for 28 hits in a game that took 4 hours, 13 minutes.
Every Braves batter scored at least once in the second, which started innocently enough when Markakis grounded out to pitcher Jake Arrieta (2-4). But Arrieta wouldn’t get another out while facing the next seven batters, and he was lifted for David Hale after Marcell Ozuna’s RBI infield single that made it 5-0.
Hale, making his first appearance with the Phillies since being acquired from the Yankees on Aug. 21, surrendered an RBI single to Travis d’Arnaud, a two-run double to Markakis and, finally, a two-run drive to deep left-center by Riley that put the Braves ahead 10-0.
The Phillies got a run back in the bottom of the frame on Gregorius’ solo shot to right before scoring six runs in the third off starter Tommy Milone. McCutchen’s RBI double, Hoskins’ two-run homer to left, Gregorius’ two-run triple to right and Phil Gosselin’s RBI groundout gave Philadelphia hope. The Phillies actually got the go-ahead run to the plate in the frame. But McCutchen, batting for the second time in the inning, grounded out with runners on first and second.
The Braves got some more breathing room in the fifth on Ozuna’s twoout RBI single to left that made it 11-8.
But the Phillies closed within a run in the eighth on back-to-back one-out solo homers by Quinn and McCutchen off lefty Will Smith. Smith escaped more trouble by getting Hoskins and
Harper to fly out.
Swanson cleared the wall in center in the ninth for a two-run cushion for Mark Melancon, who pitched a scoreless ninth for his sixth save in seven opportunities.
Hoskins went deep for the fourth time in six games. Milone allowed seven runs in 2 innings in his first start with the Braves after being acquired earlier on Sunday from the Orioles for two players to be named. Atlanta is hoping the 33-year-old lefty can provide some help to the rotation. Milone is the 11th different starter the Braves have used this season, and most of them haven’t had much success. Left-hander Max Fried is 5-0 with a 1.35 ERA, and the other 10 Braves starters are a combined 1-10 with a 7.23.
A.J. Minter (1-0) pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings for the victory.
Arrieta lasted just 1 1/3 innings and gave up seven runs on six hits with three walks and no strikeouts.