Braves-Phillies: Players Make Cox a Genius By Completing Sweep

(Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

Matt Diaz came through with the go-ahead RBI double in the eighth inning as the Braves completed the sweep of the Phillies Thursday night, 5-2.

Timely hits were hard to come by, as only three of the 17 half-innings featured runs scored.

Casey Kotchman was sitting on a fastball and drilled a 1-0 offering from JA Happ deep into the right field seats for a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth.

Javier Vazquez was pitching another stellar game, but was pulled after Greg Dobbs drilled an outside fastball over the head of Gregor Blanco in center with one out and two on in the fifth, as Chase Utley scored from second.

Peter Moylan came on and was able to get both batters he faced out in the sixth inning, but Pedro Feliz's soft grounder was enough to score Jayson Werth from third, tying the score at 2-2.

Moylan got the first two out in the top of the seventh, then was relieved by Eric O'Flaherty following a double by Shane Victorino. O'Flaherty did his job by getting the only hitter he faced, Utley, to fly out to center to end the inning.

From the seventh inning on, it was a chess match that Bobby Cox seemed destined to win.

After Kotchman singled to start the bottom of the seventh, he pinch-ran the faster Kelly Johnson for Kotchman. Pinch-hitter Diory Hernandez laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt to move Johnson to second. A swinging bunt by Gregor Blanco moved Johnson to third before a patient Martin Prado drew a walk.

However, Chipper Jones didn't square up a fastball that had the plate, and left runners stranded on first and third.

Cox brought in Mike Gonzalez to start the eighth in a tie game. He used the park to his advantage as Ryan Howard flew out to the warning track in right center—a home run at Citizens Bank Park.

After surrendering a walk to Werth, he struck out pinch-hitter John Mayberry, who couldn't check his swing for the second out.

With Pedro Feliz up, Werth took off for second, and made it to third as Brian McCann airmailed the throw off the glove of Kelly Johnson (now at second base) into center field.

With the count 2-2, Gonzalez threw a fastball too high for McCann to catch for a wild pitch.

McCann quickly raced to the backstop, got an accurate throw to Gonzalez at home to tag Werth out on the left shoulder attempting a head first slide at home plate to end the inning.

McCann atoned for his throwing error by leading off the bottom of the eighth with a single to left-center. Cox sent in the speedy Jair Jurrjens to pinch run for McCann, and soon found himself at second after another well-executed sacrifice bunt, this one by Yunel Escobar.

Matt Diaz blasted the first pitch he saw, a low-inside fastball over the glove of Victorino in center to score Jurrjens easily from second with an RBI double, despite Victorino's vain attempt to fool Jurrjens into thinking he could catch Diaz's rocket.

With the struggling Jeff Francoeur up next, who'd already struck out earlier in the game with runners in scoring position and less than two outs, Cox pressed the button again, and sent Garret Anderson up to pinch-hit.

After falling behind 1-2 facing Ryan Madson, Anderson managed to foul off a few pitches and stay alive and gave Diaz a chance to successfully steal third base. 

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