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Punchless Phillies fall to Braves

David Buchanan cruised through the first six innings Saturday night against his hometown Atlanta Braves. The Phillies' second-year righthander expended only 25 pitches to get through three innings. He didn't allow a hit until the fifth.

Ryan Howard reacts after striking out against the Atlanta Braves. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)
Ryan Howard reacts after striking out against the Atlanta Braves. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)Read more

David Buchanan cruised through the first six innings Saturday night against his hometown Atlanta Braves. The Phillies' second-year righthander expended only 25 pitches to get through three innings. He didn't allow a hit until the fifth.

But a shaky seventh doomed Buchanan and the Phillies in their 5-2 loss. A pair of two-out walks chased the starter from the game, and he watched from the dugout as consecutive Atlanta hits off Jake Diekman turned his one-run lead into a one-run deficit.

The Phillies (6-11) scored fewer than three runs for the 11th time in 18 games. One swing of the bat - Ryan Howard's second home run of the season - provided their one and only crooked number on the Citizens Bank Park scoreboard.

It was not a fine night for Diekman, who has yet to show the form he displayed in his breakout 2014 season. The struggling lefthander allowed hits to four of the seven batters he faced and was charged with two more runs. He has given up eight earned runs in only seven innings.

"Buchanan pitched amazing," Diekman said. "I'm just not executing pitches right now. I feel physically fine. I've just got to execute better."

Buchanan has not won a decision in 13 starts dating to August. Despite his seventh-inning woes, Saturday's performance was his best of the season. His first three starts of the year were laborious; he was averaging 20.1 pitches per inning. He threw a mostly efficient 87 pitches, 56 for strikes, on Saturday.

But walks continue to plague Buchanan (0-4). Three more free passes to the Braves gave Buchanan 12 through his first 201/3 innings. Johnny Gomes and Kelly Johnson scored Atlanta's tying and go-ahead runs in the seventh inning. Both reached base via Buchanan walks.

Buchanan's outing made him the first Phillies pitcher since Brett Myers on June 4, 2008, to allow two hits or fewer over at least 62/3 innings and lose the decision.

"There's definitely some positives to take from [the start]. I'm not going to be too angry about it," he said. "It's just that kind of stuff eats at me. I'd rather give up hits and then get taken out. But to walk guys, that's not me.

"Walks really bother me. That's pretty much all I can say."

Despite managing just one hit through the game's first six innings, the Braves (9-8) finished the night with nine. The Phillies mustered six but just one of consequence. Howard's homer came in the fourth inning, when he drilled Shelby Miller's 94-m.p.h. fastball over the center-field wall. The long ball was just the 10th of the season for the Phillies, producers of a major-league worst 44 runs.

Freddy Galvis made the play of the game in the sixth inning, fielding Nick Markakis' one-hopper up the middle and throwing the Braves rightfielder out at first while falling backward. The Phillies shortstop was slow to get up, appearing to injure his left shoulder on the play, but stayed in the game for an inning before he was replaced as part of a double switch.

"I couldn't tell if he was holding his shoulder or what," Sandberg said, "but he actually pinned his elbow into his ribs. So he got a little jolt into his ribs, but he was fine once he got into the dugout. That was one of the better plays I've ever seen. How he got a throw off, I have no idea."