The battered Phillies returned to friendly confines on Monday as ace Roy Halladay threw a complete game gem after Atlanta’s 3rd baseman Chipper Jones belted a 2 out first inning solo shot for the Braves’ only run.  Subbing 3rd baseman Greg Dobbs provided all of the offense that Phils needed with a sixth inning 2 run homer off of Derek Lowe as Halladay cruised the rest of the way with a brilliant, sub-100 pitch complete game.  Late game 3rd base defensive replacement Juan Castro’s eighth inning single plated an insurance run off of lefthander reliever Jonny Venters as the Phillies beat Braves by a 3-1 score on Halladay’s complete game gem.

With the win, the Phils picked up a game on NL East division-leading Atlanta and are now 4 games back in 3rd place.  They remained 2 games back of the 2nd place Mets who lost to Cincinnati.

The game was all Halladay after the first inning when, with 2 out, Chipper Jones hit Halladay’s 1st pitch into Citizens Bank Park’s left centerfield seats.  Catcher Brian McCann followed with a single to shallow centerfield before 1st baseman Eric Hinske popped out to end the inning.  From there  Halladay cruised while only 4 other Braves reached, 3 on hits and Halladay’s only walk — all scattered.  After the first, the Braves never had more than 1 reach in any 1 inning.  “The Doc” finished the game with 7 strikeouts while throwing but 93 pitches.  At one point, between the first and sixth innings, he retired 14 of the 15 hitters he faced.

Meanwhile, Lowe who went seven innings and pitched well, although overshadowed by Halladay’s performance.  The Phils had him in trouble — 2nd and 3rd with one out in the second inning and bases loaded with 2 out in the fourth, before Dobbs’ 1 out 2 run shot to centerfield put the Phils ahead for good.  Lowe’s line was 2 runs on 6 hits, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts.

Venters relieved Lowe in the eighth and the Phils scored their 3rd run on Castro’s 2 out single, but they could have had more.  Leftfielder Raul Ibanez led off the inning with a single to shallow centerfield.  1st baseman Ryan Howard followed singling again to shallow center.  Rightfielder Jayson Werth followed by grounding into a fielder’s choice as the Braves got Howard at 2nd base — runners at the corners.  Castro, who singled to leftfield driving in the 3rd run, came up and missed on a suicide squeeze with Ibanez ending up a dead-duck being tagged out at 3rd base for the 2nd out.  Why Charlie would suicide squeeze with the slow-footed Ibanez on 3rd is beyond me!

With the 3rd run in, Venters got 2nd baseman Wilson Valdez to fly out to retire the side.  Then Halladay polished off the Braves in the ninth on 5 pitches to end it.

To view the scores of all of Monday’s games, click here.

In Tuesday’s game 2, lefthander Cole Hamels opposes Jair Jurrjens for the Braves.

To view all of Tuesday’s games, click here.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 3:29 am and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary
Phillies and NL East, Analysis, Predictions, etc
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