Phillies Lose To Braves, 6-4
ATLANTA (AP) — Jason Heyward homered and drove in two runs, Andrelton Simmons had two RBIs, and the Atlanta Braves won their third straight game with a 6-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.
Returning from the All-Star break, the Braves moved one game ahead of Washington in the NL East. Last-place Philadelphia dropped 11 games behind Atlanta.
The game was played in a steady drizzle, but the rain had nearly stopped when Braves closer Craig Kimbrel earned his 30th save in 34 chances. He got Marlon Byrd on a groundout and struck out Grady Sizemore and Cody Asche.
Ervin Santana (8-6) gave up six hits, three walks and four runs — three earned — in six innings to win for the third time in four starts. He struck out one.
Phillies starter A.J. Burnett (6-9) allowed six runs, 10 hits — the last nine with two out — and one walk in five innings. He had five strikeouts as Philadelphia lost its third straight.
The Phillies led 2-0 in the second inning on Asche's sacrifice fly and Cameron Rupp's RBI single, but they trailed 4-2 in the bottom half after Heyward hit his ninth homer, B.J. Upton had an RBI single, and Simmons drove in two runs with a double.
Atlanta made it 6-2 in the fifth on RBI singles by Heyward and Tommy La Stella.
Philadelphia cut the lead to 6-4 in the sixth. Jimmy Rollins reached on first baseman Freddie Freeman's fielding error and moved to third on Chase Utley's double. Both runners scored on Ryan Howard's broken-bat, two-run bloop single.
Rollins led off the eighth with a walk off Jordan Walden, the third Atlanta pitcher, but he was thrown out at second base on Utley's strikeout. Heyward, the right fielder, charged in to make a diving catch of Howard's liner.
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