PHILADELPHIA – After making it through nearly five months of the season without getting a win at Citizens Bank Park, the Braves left nothing to chance after taking an early lead in the first game of a doubleheader Wednesday against the Phillies.
Freddie Freeman hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning, Ender Inciarte had five hits including a two-run single in a four-run third inning, and R.A. Dickey took a two-hit shutout to the seventh inning of a 9-1 Braves win in the early afternoon portion of a doubleheader.
Dickey (9-8) pitched a season-high eight innings and allowed seven hits (all singles), one run and one walk with nine strikeouts, the second time in three starts that he collected nine K’s.
“He had a really good (knuckleball) today — I mean it was really good,” said manager Brian Snitker, whose Braves snapped a seven-game skid against the Phillies and won for the first time this season at Citizens Bank Park in their ninth game at the South Philadelphia stadium.
Dickey tossed a season-high 121 pitches including 81 strikes and didn’t give up a run until the Phillies got three singles in the seventh inning.
“Today I got a few more strikeouts on non-knuckleball pitches, which is a good sign a lot of times,” said Dickey, who is 3-1 with a 2.93 ERA in his past six starts, with 38 strikeouts and 10 walks in 40 innings. “I mean, if I’m getting guys out with a pitch that’s not my signature pitch, it can be good.
“I threw a lot of fastballs today. It’s so fun to pitch with a lead like that because you can really expand your repertoire a little bit and kind of explore some things you don’t normally get to explore in a closer game.”
Inciarte was 5-for-5 with four singles, a seventh-inning triple, a ninth-inning walk and four RBIs. It was his majors-leading third five-hit game this season and the second time he went 5-for-5 with a walk.
“I didn’t realize he had three five-hit games this year,” Snitker said. “That’s phenomenal…. Just good (team) offense. We needed that. Glad we won a game here.”
After Inciarte started the game with a single and stole second base, Brandon Phillips drove in the first run with a single that was his 2,000th career hit, making Phillips the 12th active player to reach that standard and the second Brave to do it this season, joining Nick Markakis.
Inciarte had three hits and three RBIs in the first three innings — before the Phillies’ seventh batter made his first plate appearance.
“Third 5-for-5 game,” Dickey said in a tone of admiration. “He’s just got such a great approach, he never tries to do too much, it seems. It was a great day for all our hitters, really.”
The Braves collected just their third win in 15 games against the Phillies, who have the majors’ worst record. Philadelphia fell to 49-82, which includes 37-79 against teams other than the Braves.
Phillips also became just the fifth player in MLB history whose primary position was second base to total at least 2,000 hits, 200 homers and 200 stolen bases.
Asked if it was better to get the milestone hit in a win, Phillips laughed and said, "Hell, yeah. You don't want to get your 2,000th hit like that and lose. You're sitting in your chair saying (whisper excitedly), Yeah, I finally did it. And everybody else is, like, damn, we lost. So it feels good to do it in a win. Ender had a great game, Dickey pitched his butt off."
Phillies starter Jerad Eickhoff (4-8) gave up six hits and six runs and was gone before he even had a chance to bat, lifted after facing two batters in the third inning and giving up consecutive doubles to Freeman and Nick Markakis.
The Phillies announced afterward that Eickhoff had nerve irritation in his pitching hand.
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