Braves Fall to Phillies 5-3, Chipper Out
By Editorial Staff
(Source: Yardbarker.com)
As I warned in today’s news and notes, the Braves were in fact without Chipper Jones this afternoon due to a sore groin. Brooks Conrad got his first start of the season today at third base. According to Dave O’Brien’s blog Chipper hopes to return to the lineup on Monday.
Braves pitcher Kenshin Kawakami started slowly today but rallied in the middle innings to give the Braves bullpen some much needed rest. His line for the night was not overly impressive 6.2 innings 7 hits and 5 earned runs giving up homers to Placido Polanco, Jason Werth, and Shane Victorino. Consider though that Kawakami allowed four of those runs in the first three innings. He was able to settle down pitching scoreless frames in the fifth and sixth before Victorino tagged him for a homer in the seventh.
Offensively the Braves struggled early before getting too Phillies starter Cole Hamels in the fifth. For the Braves, Troy Glaus continued his hot streak of late going 2-3 with 2 rbi’s. Melky Cabrera added a run scoring single in the third. Omar Infante in for injured shortstop Yunel Escobar had three hits and scored once.
So the Braves dropped two out of three to the Phillies and really didn’t get any healthier during the series with Chipper now hurting. The loss drops the Braves to 13-18 on the season 6 full games behind the Phillies. The Braves travel to Milwaukee to begin a three game set with the Brewers. Tommy Hanson will be on the bump for the Braves in the first game of that series.