Phillies Recap: August 15, 2009

Atlanta Braves 4, Philadelphia Phillies 3

On a hot afternoon in Atlanta, the Phillies and Braves played another close game all afternoon. Cole Hamels battled a high pitch count all day and crafted his way through six innings. His counterpart, Kenshin Kawakami, was much more efficient and almost as effective in the game. However, the Phillies offense did not have the knock-out punch in them, despite six extra-base hits. In the end, Brad Lidge (0-5) blew his own save with a pair of errors, which led to a 4-3 Braves win.

Cole Hamels showed signs of mastery but was done in by a high pitch count, including two long at bats against Brian McCann. McCann also touched up Hamels with a two-run homer, who also surrendered a pair of fly outs to the wall in the game. He exited the game with the lead, having given up two earned runs in his six innings of work. The bullpen came in and was once again effective with a small lead until the ninth, when several errors led to Brad Lidge's eight blown save of the season.

Kawakami, the Braves righty pitched well with the Phillies hitters appearing somewhat anxious at the plate. But they put together scoring innings in the fourth and fifth innings to tie the game at two all. In the seventh, the Phillies continued their extra-base hit assault on Kawakami as Jayson Werth homered to deep center. On the day, Kawakami went 6.1 innings, giving up three earned runs. However, it could have been much worse as the Phillies stranded a runner at third with less than two outs on three occasions. This would come back to bite the Phillies as they lost the game by the slimest of margins.

Ultimately, the Phillies set themselves up for a terrible loss, as they had three different chances to get a runner home from third without a base hit. However, this one especially hurts against the division rival Braves, as they had their second game of the series all but won. Don't put this one on the bullpen though, as the offense was to blame here. The two teams face off in the rubber match tomorrow night on national television.