Miller’s winless streak reaches 13 starts as former Brave Harang earns victory,

Pitcher’s winless streak reaches 13 starts as Braves’ slump extends to 4-14.

PHILADELPHIA — Aaron Harang came into Thursday night’s game lugging a career-worst eight-start losing streak, and the lumbering Phillies veteran had been every bit as bad as his record in that stretch would indicate.

Shelby Miller came in with a career-worst 12-start winless streak, and the Braves All-Star had pitched far better than his record in that span would indicate.

One of those streaks continued, and those who’ve followed the Braves and Miller lately can probably guess which, even if you didn’t watch.

Eleven of 28 batters that Miller faced got hits, and the Phillies scored four runs in the fourth through sixth innings of a 4-1 win against the Braves to open a four-game series at Citizens Bank Park.

It was the 14th loss in 18 games for the Braves, who’ve scored a total of 11 runs during their current 1-7 slide.

The last-place Phillies have won 10 of 12 games since the All-Star break.

Harang (5-11) allowed nine hits but only one run in five innings, after going 0-8 with a 6.94 ERA and .309 opponents’ average in his past eight starts. He came off the disabled list Friday after missing four weeks with plantar fasciitis.

For Miller (5-8), an almost inexplicable streak continued. He is 0-7 despite a solid 3.19 ERA in his past 13 starts, the longest drought of his career and the longest by any Braves pitcher since Kenshin Kawakami went 14 starts without a win early in the 2010 season.

The Braves scored one or no runs while he was in 10 of his past 13 starts, and Thursday marked the first time since June 13 that Miller had thrown a pitch while anything other than a zero was under the runs column besides the Braves’ name on the scoreboard.

The only time he had received any official run support in his past seven starts before Thursday was July 10 at Colorado, and the three runs credited as run support for Miller in that game were scored after he’d left the game (the Braves hadn’t announced a pitching change yet, hence the run support was credited to him).

The Braves got a dozen hits Thursday, the most they’d had in 19 games since totaling 15 hits in a 5-3 win at Milwaukee on July 6. They’ve won just five games since then, and the Braves had batted .216 and totaled 42 runs in their past 17 games before Thursday, averaging fewer than 2.5 runs in that stretch.

They’ve scored three runs or fewer in 14 of their past 17 games.

They staked Miller to a 1-0 lead in the third inning after loading the bases on three consecutive singles to start the inning. The Braves had a chance to blow the game open there, but Harang struck out Freddie Freeman and got Adonis Garcia on a weak comebacker to the mound that yielded a force at the plate for the second out.

Their only run scored when A.J. Pierzynski reached out to poke a two-out infield single fielded by the shortstop at the outfield grass. A 1-0 lead for Miller, who acted as if he didn’t know what to do with it, perhaps because he’d forgotten what it felt like.

The Phillies got two runs in the fourth inning on four consecutive oneout singles, the last one a two-out hit by Carlos Ruiz for a 2-1 lead.

HUNTER MARTIN / GETTY IMAGES Falling to 5-8, Shelby Miller is 0-7 despite a 3.19 ERA in his past 13 starts, the longest drought of his career and the longest by any Braves pitcher since Kenshin Kawakami went 14 starts without a win in 2010.