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Myers roughed up as Braves pound Phillies

Sep 25, 2008 - 4:42 AM By Vince DiGregorio PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- The Atlanta Braves hit Brett Myers hard, early and often before Chipper Jones delivered the knockout punch.

Jones capped a six-run fifth inning with a pinch hit, three-run home run as the Braves posted a 10-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday in the rubber game of the three-game series.

Martin Prado and Casey Kotchman each added two RBI as Atlanta won its second straight over Philadelphia after dropping 14 of the previous 16 meetings this season.

"We know we're capable of playing with these guys," Chipper Jones said. "This season series should be a lot closer than it is, but over the last week, we can honestly look at ourselves in the mirror and say we've done our job. We didn't make it easy on anybody. We've played everybody tough. We haven't mailed it in. We're not rolling over."

Ryan Howard hit his major league-leading 47th home run and Chase Utley hit his career-high 33rd homer for the Phillies (89-70). Despite the loss, Philadelphia remained 1 1/2 games ahead of the New York Mets (87-71) in the National League East after the Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 9-6, in 10 innings.

"(Atlanta) stepped up and made sure we didn't get it done," Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins said. "Chipper hit a big home run, but we have short memories and that's a good thing."

The score was tied, 3-3, in the fifth when Brian McCann stroked an RBI double to put the Braves ahead. They added two more runs on a throwing error by Howard and an RBI single by Brandon Jones to make it, 6-3.

Lefthander Scott Eyre entered the game with runners on first and second and two outs to force Chipper Jones to bat from the right side, but Jones drove a 2-1 pitch inside the left-field foul pole for his 22nd home run of the season to break open the game.

"Before that inning, if it gets all the way down to the nine-hole and we've got a chance to break open the game, I would be ready," Chipper Jones said. "So I went in and got ready, not expecting to hit until the eighth or the ninth.

"But that situation presented itself exactly the way I thought it could have. I got a good pitch to hit and squared up."

For Jones, it was only his fifth homer from the right side of the plate this year. He had been limited to pinch hitting duty recently because of right shoulder inflammation.

"Chipper's been able to hit from the left side, not the right side," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "(But) he said, 'Let me hit. I can do it.' You're not gonna say no to a hitter like that, so we took a shot at it and obviously, he delivered."

Buddy Carlyle (2-0) got the win in relief of starter Jo-Jo Reyes, and was the second of six pitchers used by the Braves.

Myers (10-13) lasted only 4 1/3 innings and allowed six runs - four earned - on 10 hits. Myers was attempting to rebound from his worst outing of the season where he gave up 10 runs over four innings in a loss at Florida. However, the righthander's struggles continued Wednesday.

"I didn't give us a chance to win tonight, so that's my fault," Myers said. "If I would have at least had a semi-better game, we would have had a chance. That fifth inning kind of took a little wind out of the sail."

Atlanta opened the scoring with three consecutive hits in the first inning. Josh Anderson doubled. Kelly Johnson singled to extend his hitting streak to 22 games before Prado made it 1-0 with an RBI single. Kotchman added a run-scoring single to make it, 2-0.

"We had a lot of bats going tonight. We hit the ball pretty darn good," Cox said.

After Pedro Feliz got the Phillies on the board with an RBI single in the second, Kotchman added an RBI groundout in the third to make it, 3-1.

Philadelphia tied the game on solo homers by Utley in the third and Howard in the fourth.

Reyes went 3 1/3 innings and gave up three runs on five hits.

Following an off day Thursday, the Phillies host the Washington Nationals in a three-game series to close out the regular season, while the Mets have one more game against the Cubs before hosting the Florida Marlins for a three-game set.