Phillies shut out by Braves

For the second time this season, the Phillies were stymied by the Atlanta Braves' Williams Perez, who gave himself the best of birthday presents.

Pitching on his 25th birthday, the righthander limited the Phillies to two hits for the second time this season as the Braves earned a 2-0 win on a cold, rainy Saturday at Citizens Bank Park, where the infield looked like a quagmire by game's end.

"It was ugly weather and an ugly game," manager Pete Mackanin said.

Perez (2-1) pitched 61/3 shutout innings, striking out four and walking one.

In his previous appearance this season against the Phillies, on May 11 in Atlanta, Perez allowed one run on just two hits over eight innings in a 5-1 win.

"He was throwing the ball down and away and threw a pretty good change-up, too," said shortstop Freddy Galvis, who was 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.

The Phillies (24-19) have dropped the first two games of this weekend series against the Braves (12-30), who have the worst record in the National League.

Atlanta had nothing to show for several hard-hit balls in the first three innings, but opened the scoring with two runs in the fourth off Phillies starter Adam Morgan.

Ender Inciarte knocked in the first run with an RBI double to center on a ball that Odubel Herrera failed to catch on a diving attempt. The Braves made it 2-0 on a sacrifice fly to center by shortstop Erick Aybar, who is batting .175.

Morgan allowed the two runs on four hits in six innings, bouncing back from his last start, when he surrendered seven earned runs in 32/3 innings in a 9-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds last Sunday.

"After an outing like the Reds one, you try to keep things simple," Morgan said. "The game plan was to keep the ball down, and overall I felt like it was all right."

Nothing was simple about pitching on a soggy day.

"It is not ideal conditions, but you have to keep going," Morgan said.

A potentially scary moment occurred with one out in the seventh inning, when Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco stayed down momentarily after it was ruled that he was hit by a pitch. The ruling on the field was overturned when replay showed the ball hit his bat. It appeared as if the bat hit the top of Franco's helmet, knocking it off.

Franco returned to the plate and walked on the next pitch.

That ended the day for Perez, who was relieved by lefthander Ian Krol. Tommy Joseph pinch-hit for Ryan Howard, who had struck out in his two appearances, dropping his average to .161. Joseph flied to right for the second out. Reliever Jason Grilli then ended the inning by getting Carlos Ruiz on a liner to right.

Afterward, Mackanin hinted that Howard could get the day off Sunday even though the Braves will start righthander Casey Kelly.

Braves closer Arodys Vizcaino threw plenty of gas in earning the save, striking out two in a hitless ninth inning.

The Phillies have scored two or fewer runs 15 times and are 4-11 in those games. They are now tied with Atlanta for the fewest runs scored in the National League, 137.

"As good as our pitching has been, at some point it has to affect everybody, but it hasn't affected our guys yet," Mackanin said of the lack of offense. "They looked a little down today, but we have to come back tomorrow and get it going."

mnarducci@phillynews.com

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