Instant Replay: Phillies 4, Braves 1

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BOX SCORE

In his first game in more than a month, righty Aaron Harang earned his first win in more than two months.

Behind five solid innings from Harang and Dom Brown’s first home run of the season, the Phillies opened a four-game series against the Braves with a 4-1 victory on Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park.

For the Phillies (39-64), it was the 10th win in the 12 games since the All-Star break, though they are still four games from crawling out of the cellar in the NL East.

Starting pitching report
Harang (5-11) allowed a run on nine hits and a walk over five innings. He struck out three and threw 15 first-pitch strikes to 25 hitters.

His toughest test came in the third inning when the Braves loaded the bases with no outs. Harang nearly escaped unscathed when he struck out Freddie Freeman and got a force out at the plate on a soft grounder from cleanup hitter Adonis Garcia.

Only a bloop single from A.J. Pierzynski dented the scoreboard for the Braves against Harang.

The Braves’ Shelby Miller (5-8) gave up four runs on 11 hits and a walk in six innings.

Bullpen report
Elvis Araujo struck out two hitters in a perfect sixth inning, while Jeanmar Gomez tossed scoreless seventh and eighth innings.

Ken Giles took over in the ninth to nail down his second save of the season. Though he gave up singles to the first two hitters he faced, Giles wowed the crowd with seven fastballs that topped 100 mph.

At the plate
Brown hit his first home run of the season and his first since Sept. 16, 2014 in the sixth to cap off the Phillies’ scoring. Carlos Ruiz drove home the Phils’ first two runs of the game with a bases-loaded single with one out in the fourth.

Ruiz’s big hit was followed by an RBI single in the fifth inning from Ryan Howard. Brown and Cesar Hernandez had a pair of hits, though Brown’s homer was the team’s lone extra-base knock.

Milestone
Ruiz appeared in his 1,000th career game. He has caught 963 of them, trailing only Mike Lieberthal (1,139), Red Dooin (1,124), Bob Boone (1,094) and Darren Daulton (965) in team history.

Up next
The Phillies and Braves continue the four-game series on Friday night with a pitching matchup yet to be determined. Both clubs have not announced pitchers for the game with the non-waiver trade deadline looming. However, Aaron Nola (1-1, 3.29) will be ready to pitch after picking up his first win last Sunday in Chicago.

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