Phillies beat Braves in 13 innings

ATLANTA - It took longer than they would have liked - four innings longer, to be precise - but the Phillies took the first of a three-game series against the first-place Braves at Turner Field last night.

After Jonathan Papelbon blew his first save since April 2, it took until the 13th inning for one of the two teams to break a 1-1 tie. That team was the Phillies, who did so in a big way, scoring five runs off righthander David Hale to claim a 6-1 win.

A fielding error on Freddie Freeman on a sharp one-hopper off the bat of Ryan Howard pushed the go-ahead run home before the floodgates opened.

Three innings earlier, Freeman nearly ended the game. With one out in the 10th, the young slugger hammered a Justin De Fratus fastball to deep leftfield, sending Domonic Brown back to the wall. Brown apparently lost track of the ball, which ended up missing his glove and bouncing off the top of the wall. Compounding the development was Brown's failure to realize that the ball was still in the field of play. As he turned and looked up into the stands, the ball bounded back toward the left-center alley. By the time Ben Revere scrambled in from centerfield to retrieve it, Freeman was sliding into third with a triple.

Yet the Braves were unable to capitalize. After the Phillies intentionally walked Evan Gattis to set up the doubleplay, Justin Upton popped out in foul territory and Chris Johnson struck out to prolong the game.

With the Phillies leading 1-0, Papelbon allowed singles to Justin Upton and Chris Johnson to lead off the ninth inning, and then a one-out single to Adrelton Simmons that scored Upton. None of the hits were particularly hard - Upton's was a lob shot out of reach of a retreating Jimmy Rollins, Johnson's was a ground ball past a diving Chase Utley, Simmons' was a soft fly ball that dropped in front of a charging Marlon Byrd - but they were enough to tie the game.

It was the first run Papelbon had allowed since May 20, and only the second since April 2, his second outing of the season and his only previous blown save. Since April 2, he had allowed just 13 hits and seven walks with 21 strikeouts and one earned run in 25 innings, going 15-for-15 in save opportunities and picking up two wins.

Cole Hamels deserved plenty of credit for his third straight scoreless outing, but he escaped big-time trouble in the seventh inning on an Utley to Jimmy Rollins to Ryan Howard doubleplay that ended a frame that had begun with the bases loaded and nobody out. Hamels entered the day riding a scoreless streak of 16 2/3 innings, 15 2/3 of which came in his last two starts, in which allowed just 13 baserunners while striking out 18.

Hamels allowed a two-out double to Freeman in the first but got Gattis to pop out to end the frame. He had a runner in scoring position with two outs in the fifth but struck out pitcher Julio Teheran. But after a 1-2-3 sixth inning, Hamels ran into trouble in the seventh, allowing a single to Gattis and a double to Justin Upton before hitting Chris Johnson with a pitch to load the bases with nobody out. At the time, the Phillies were leading 1-0, Howard's 12th homer in the second inning the only run they would manage off of up-and-coming righty Teheran, who struck out six, and walked none in eight innings.

After a visit to the mound by pitching coach Bob McClure, Tommy La Stella smoked a line drive that went directly into the glove of third baseman Reid Brignac for the first out. Simmons then sent an 0-1 cutter on the ground to second base, where Utley fielded it and made a quick throw to Rollins, setting in motion an inning-ending doubleplay.

Hamels struck out six, walked two and hit one batter with a pitch in seven scoreless innings, lowering his ERA to 2.78. Teheran lowered his ERA to 2.31. Hamels has pitched at least six innings in 10 of his 11 starts this season, and at least seven in each of his last eight.

Jake Diekman struck out the first two batters he faced in the eighth inning, then allowed a pair of singles. He then struck out Gattis to leave the game in the hands of Papelbon, whom the Phillies would be thrilled to deal in advance of the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

The Braves entered the series at 36-32 with a lead of just one game over both the Nationals and the Marlins. The Braves and Phillies are playing just their second series of the season. The first one featured the Braves taking two out of three at Citizens Bank Park in mid-April.

Howard's home run was his first extra-base hit since June 1 against the Mets, a streak of 49 plate appearances.

Blog: ph.ly/HighCheese