Phillies' Jerome Williams gets to good start, then falters

ATLANTA

- Despite giving up a home run to the second batter he faced, Jerome Williams was doing what he's basically done best since joining the Phillies last August in the first half of last night's game at Turner Field. He was keeping his team in the game.

He retired eight straight after Andrelton Simmons' home run. Williams and the Phillies were down by just one run heading into the bottom of the fifth inning.

But then Williams tried to finish off rookie Jace Peterson with a 1-2 changeup on the outer half of the plate to begin the fifth. Peterson jumped on the 82-mph offering and the blistering line-drive hit nearly took Williams out of the game.

"Close," Williams said. "Three to four inches from my face."

The veteran pitcher looked shocked that the ball somehow spared him. Perhaps it did spook him, though.

"No, I wasn't shaken up at all," Williams said. "I was just trying to get that next batter out. Unfortunately they executed a hit-and-run and I just wanted to stop the bleeding, and it didn't happen."

Williams gave up as many hits to the first five batters of the fifth as he had in the first four innings combined. Four of the first five Braves reached base off Williams as the home team batted around in the inning en route to a 7-5 win.

The Phillies (10-19) lost their third consecutive series to finish their 10-game road trip at a 3-7 clip. They also tied the Milwaukee Brewers for the most losses in baseball.

"I mean, you go out there and compete," Ryan Howard said of the ever-growing loss total. "You play to win. Today's another tough game where we had the tying run in striking distance. They were able to shut us down that inning and tack on one more.

"The only thing you can do is continue to play. When this game's over, going into the off day, rest, relax and try to forget about this road trip and start new on Friday."

After the Braves scored four times in the fifth, an inning capped by Freddie Freeman's two-run double off struggling reliever Jake Diekman, Howard attempted to ignite a rally. Howard led off the sixth with a home run, his fifth of the season; all five have come in his last 14 games.

The home run was also Howard's 50th in 161 career games against the Braves and his 21st in 79 games at Turner Field. Howard has hit more home runs against Atlanta than any opponent in his career. He finished last night's game 3-for-4 with a walk.

The Phils managed to trim the deficit from 6-1 to 6-4 when Howard's home run was followed up by two more runs, courtesy Odubel Herrera and Cesar Hernandez (an infield single and a walk), followed by Jeff Francoeur and Ben Revere (a pinch-hit single, a run-scoring double). Revere finished the night with a career-high three doubles; he finished the game 4-for-5 and is hitting .378 (17-for-45) in his last 11 games.

"He's peppering the ball all over the field," manager Ryne Sandberg said. "A lot of confidence."

But the Phillies' offense has its limits, and it's usually right around the four-run mark. The Braves' bullpen kept the visitors in check until a last-ditch effort in the ninth.

After Darin Ruf avoided a hitless night by dumping a two-out, run-scoring single to left, bringing the Phillies within two runs and the go-ahead batter to the plate, Braves closer Jason Grilli struck out Herrera to end the game. It was Herrera's third strikeout of the night; he went 2-for-13 with seven strikeouts in three games in Atlanta.

Last night's game marked just the seventh time in 29 games that the Phillies managed to score more than four runs.

Cody Asche and Ruf, the two hitters on either side of cleanup hitter Howard, were a combined 1-for-10 with five strikeouts. Asche, who accounted for four of those strikeouts, is 0-for-17 with nine strikeouts in his last four games.

"He just seems to be off the baseball," Sandberg said. "He had good swings his first at-bat with a chance to drive in a run and he just seemed to swing right through the pitches. He just seems to be off the ball."

Two nights removed from banging out a season-high 14 hits, the Phillies had 12. But they also left 10 runners on base.

The pitching staff's mounting walk total didn't help, either.

Diekman avoided walking Freeman in taking over for Williams in the fifth, but he did miss on a 2-2 pitch and had to throw a fastball in a full count. Freeman was all over the pitch, knocking in two runs. Diekman did issue his 11th walk of the season two batters later; only one major league reliever, teammate Dustin McGowan, has walked more batters this season.

Jeanmar Gomez, who took over for Diekman, walked the first batter he faced in the sixth inning. Three batters later, the walk turned into a run when Nick Markakis doubled.

"The leadoff walk," Sandberg said, "you know, they come back to haunt us."