Phillips' single lifts Braves over Marlins
ATLANTA — Brandon Phillips is swinging a big bat at home in his first season with the Atlanta Braves.
Phillips drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning, Matt Adams had four RBIs and the Atlanta Braves rallied from a four-run deficit to beat the Miami Marlins 8-7 on Saturday.
"For myself, my first walk-off win as a Brave, it really means a lot, playing in front of my family and friends," he said. "It just shows our grind as a team. We're never out of any game."
Johan Camargo led off the 10th with a single, advanced on a sacrifice and scored when Phillips singled up the middle off A.J. Ramos (1-3).
Nick Markakis' RBI double in the ninth sent the game into extra innings. Arodys Vizcaino (3-2), the seventh Atlanta pitcher, faced four batters in the 10th to get the win.
The Braves had lost five of seven overall and eight of 11 at home, but they overcame an uncustomary rocky start by pitcher Jaime Garcia to cool off the Marlins.
Adams hit his 10th homer in the first and had RBI doubles to make it 3-0 in the third and 7-6 in the seventh.
Phillips' last game-ending RBI was four years ago for Cincinnati. He has seven in his career.
Phillips has returned to his hometown with a flourish. The longtime resident of Stone Mountain doubled to begin the ninth and scored on Markakis' double. He's hitting .325 with 11 RBIs in 117 at-bats at Sun Trust Park.
"After this, I'm going to do some push-ups because I thought that ball was gone," Phillips said. "But I'll take the double, and I ended up scoring, so it feels good."
Tyler Moore homered and Christian Yelich doubled in a five-run fifth inning for Miami, which had won three straight and 13 of 18 behind a surging offense.
"We've got to turn the page and not let this snowball," second baseman Dee Gordon said. "We've been playing good baseball. We have to have a (short) memory. This was just a little punch in the chest."
Ramos gave up four hits and two runs in 1 1/3 innings to blow his first save since last Aug. 29. He had converted 17 straight chances.
"The slider was obviously up (against Markakis) and the two-seamer in the 10th was down the middle," Ramos said. "I have a feeling he knew it was coming and I don't care, because if I execute the pitch he doesn't do anything with it."