The Phillies put together a mostly competitive afternoon, but would fall to the Atlanta Braves in extra innings.
Phillies starter John Lannan, pitching on short rest for the first time in his career, put together an admirable 77-pitch performance. Lannan gave up four runs in 4 1/3 innings, only two earned. Those four runs would be all the Atlanta Braves would score.
The bullpen also did a nice job. Zach Miner made his Phillies debut and went 2 2/3 innings, allowing no hits, one walk, and no runs. Miner struck out two. Luis Garcia and Jonathan Papelbon gave the Phillies a scoreless inning each to close out the first nine innings. The Phillies turned to Antonio Bastardo in extras and the lefty pitched a scoreless 10th inning.
The Phillies' offense came from an RBI groundout in the first inning, a two-run John Mayberry home run in the fourth inning that scored Darin Ruf, and a Jimmy Rollins RBI double in the seventh inning. But the Phillies' offense would pretty much shut down after that.
In the 11th inning, Jake Diekman would pitch a 1-2-3 inning. But in the 12th Diekman walked the bases loaded with one out. Justin De Fratus relieved Diekman and got the ground ball the Phillies needed. Unfortunately, Kevin Frandsen, in the game at first base, came off of the bag to receive Chase Utley's throw and the Braves scored the go-ahead run to make it 5-4 Braves.
The bottom of the 12th inning went to Braves closer Craig Kimbrel. Carlos Ruiz led off with a single, just the Phillies' second hit off of the Braves bullpen. Kevin Frandsen struck out. Jimmy Rollins grounded into a fielder's choice for the second out. The Phillies called upon pinch-hitter Laynce Nix. Rollins advanced to second base on a passed ball to get into scoring position, but Nix would strike out. The Phillies lose 5-4.
