Phillies sweep Braves as Nick Pivetta's fastball mows them down

Nick Pivetta has three off-speed pitches: The righthander can throw a change-up, a curveball, and a slider. But when his fastball is on  —  which it was Monday afternoon in a 7-6 win over Atlanta  — there's little use for anything else.

Pivetta dominated the Braves with his fastball, firing it for 80 percent of his pitches and hammering it with command. He used the fastball to rack up four of his five strikeouts and walked just one batter. Pivetta allowed one run on three hits in six innings as the Phillies completed a four-game sweep at Citizens Bank Park. They have won five straight and nine of their last 12.

The season's final two months will be a chance for the young Phillies starters to make their case for a role in next year's rotation. Pivetta sure made his on Monday.

[Phillies trade Joaquin Benoit to Pittsburgh for A-ball arm]

"He feels more confident. With the results you get, you feel more confident," manager Pete Mackanin said. "Some people are more confident because of results, other people are just confident and they get results. I think any time a player gets to the big leagues, they have to truly feel they belong here and I feel like that's how he feels."

Pivetta seemed to be in a bit of trouble in the second when the first two batters reached base. But then he fired his fastball and all was fine. He recorded two quick outs and then threw five fastballs to Johan Camargo before blowing him away with a 96-mph offering for strike three. It was the beginning of an inspiring start.

Pivetta commanded his fastball on both sides of the plate and was not afraid to pitch inside. He threw first-pitch fastballs to 17 of the 22 batters he faced. The Braves knew fastballs were coming. That was no secret. But they still could not hit it.

"I felt it really well. We threw a lot of fastballs today. They weren't picking it up really well and I just kind of rolled with it," Pivetta said. "It always makes it easy when you can just focus on one pitch and they're not really seeing it too well. That was a positive. But I also had to get my off-speed [pitches] in for strikes to get them off that."

"You have to pick your spots with that lineup when you're going to go in and out because if you leave it over the middle, it's going to get hit," catcher Andrew Knapp said. "But he did a really good job of getting in on a lot of guys and forcing them to worry about the fastball. Then he could do whatever he wanted."

Odubel Herrera hit a three-run homer to the second deck in right field in the third and Maikel Franco hit a solo shot in the seventh that landed in the second deck in left. Tommy Joseph added three hits and a pair of RBIs, but a five-run lead was almost not enough for the bullpen to hold.

Jesen Therrien allowed three runs in the seventh and recorded just one out. Adam Morgan gave up a homer and Luis Garcia loaded the bases before escaping the eighth. Hector Neris allowed a run in the ninth before earning the save with the tying run on third base.

Mackanin pulled Pivetta after 95 pitches, not wanting to push him too far in the afternoon heat. But the manager first allowed him to finish the sixth. Pivetta allowed a leadoff single but would not crack. He forced a groundout to Brandon Phillips and then struck out Freddie Freeman and Matt Adams, the final two batters.

Pivetta recorded all three outs on fastballs and all but one of his final 12 pitches were fastballs.  When the pitch is that effective, there's little need to throw anything else.

"He was money with it. That's by far his best pitch, so we called it a lot," Knapp said. "He was pretty much throwing fastballs by guys, so we were going to stick with it."