ATLANTA — The Phillies needed extra innings and a whole bunch of pitchers, but they managed to come away with their first win of the Gabe Kapler era Friday night.
Carlos Santana capped a three-RBI game with a tie-breaking sacrifice fly to left in the top of the 11th inning to propel the Phillies to a 5-4 win over the Atlanta Braves.
Drew Hutchison, the Phillies’ eighth reliever of the game, got the win with two scoreless innings of relief.
Luis Garcia walked the leadoff man in the bottom of the eighth and let a one-run lead get away. All in all, however, the bullpen pitched well in giving up just one run in seven innings. The bullpen allowed seven runs in an 8-5 opening day loss. The Phils blew a 5-0 lead in that game and Kapler was roundly criticized for pulling starter Aaron Nola after 68 pitches (see story).
The Braves tied this game with two outs in the bottom of the eighth on a hit by Preston Tucker then appeared to take a 5-4 lead on a double by Dansby Swanson. Pinch-runner Peter Bourjos appeared to score from first on the play. He was initially ruled safe, but the Phillies challenged the call. Replays showed that Bourjos’ leg never touched the plate and he was ruled out with leftfielder Rhys Hoskins and shortstop J.P. Crawford hooking up on a relay to catcher Andrew Knapp.
Tucker’s game-tying hit scored Freddie Freeman from third. Freeman had walked and moved to third on an infield out, taking advantage of third baseman Scott Kingery, who was in a shift and did not get back to cover.
MLB
Phillies starter Nick Pivetta allowed three runs over four innings. He exited after 73 pitches.
Hoskins belted his first home run of the season in the top of the second to give the Phils a 1-0 lead.
Santana had a homer and pair of sacrifice flies. He tied the game at 3-3 with his first homer as a Phillie in the fifth. The Phils then went ahead in the sixth on a pinch-hit single by Nick Williams.
A couple of notes:
• Hoby Milner was called on for the second night in a row to face the lefty-hitting tandem of Freeman and Nick Markakis in the middle innings. He walked Freeman, but retired Markakis. Freeman tagged Milner for a two-run homer in Thursday’s loss.
• Kingery made his first big-league start. He played third base. Maikel Franco did not start. Kingery collected his first big-league hit, a single in the fourth. He added a single in the eighth.
• Jorge Alfaro did not start either of the first two games. He did enter in the 10th inning. Kapler said he planned to have Alfaro and Knapp get three starts apiece over the first six games. Alfaro will likely start Saturday night’s game.