Phillies Fall Another Game

The Atlanta Braves are nearly back on top in the NL East. They`ve rallied using a very familiar formula -- strong pitching.

John Burkett worked eight innings, and the bullpen finished off the first-place Philadelphia with three scoreless frames as the Braves won their fifth straight game, beating the Phillies 4-1 Tuesday night. The second-place Braves pulled within a half-game of the slumping Phillies. The Braves are 15-8 in June and have gained 7½ games on Philadelphia during the span.

"To close the gap this fast, it just shows you how good this club is playing right now," said Rico Brogna, a former Phillies player, who hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the 11th inning.

"We`ve been getting great pitching. That`s always been the case with Atlanta."

The Braves have not lost since trading closer John Rocker last Friday.

Mike Remlinger (3-1) pitched a scoreless 10th inning for the win and Jose Cabrera worked the 11th for his first save.

Brian Jordan singled with one out in the Atlanta 11th against Wayne Gomes (4-2). B.J. Surhoff followed with a single and Javy Lopez walked to load the bases.

Brogna lifted a flyball to left field to score Jordan without a throw by Pat Burrell, who leads the NL in outfield assists with 12.

Keith Lockhart and Quilvio Veras followed with RBI singles for insurance. The Phillies are 8-14 since June 1.

Burkett was impressive again. He allowed one run and three hits over eight innings, lowering his NL-best ERA to 2.35. He struck out seven and walked one.

"I wanted to help keep this streak going and I think I did that," Burkett said. "I got ahead of them and pitched from there. It`s all about control with me. I felt like I had good enough stuff to pitch a shutout."

Cox couldn`t wait to talk about Burkett after the game.

"No run support again for John," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. "He should be 15-2 by now with the way he`s been pitching this season. He`s been a truly amazing story."

Burkett retired 15 straight batters after Doug Glanville opened the first with a single. He got plenty of defensive support to compile the streak.

Shortstop Rafael Furcal took away a hit from Bobby Abreu when he ranged deep to his right and made a strong, off-balance throw to get a force on Glanville in the first.

Left fielder B.J. Surhoff made a sliding catch in the fifth inning to rob Burrell of a hit.

Steve Karsay, acquired with Steve Reed for Rocker from Cleveland, pitched a scoreless ninth for the Braves.

The Braves bullpen surrendered just one hit in three innings of work. The quartet of Burkett, Karsay, Remlinger and Cabrera held the Phillies to four hits.

"We have tremendous depth (in the bullpen) now, it`s dynamite," Cox said. "We can use all of them in save situations and we will."

Andruw Jones gave Atlanta a 1-0 lead in the first with a homer, his 18th of the season, off Nelson Figueroa.

The Phillies broke through against Burkett in the seventh. Abreu walked and Scott Rolen doubled, but Burkett got Travis Lee to hit a double-play grounder to keep the damage to a minimum as the Phillies tied it at 1.

If there was a silver lining for the Phillies, It was Figueroa.

Figueroa, who came to the club in the trade of Curt Schilling last season, threw 7 1-3 innings. He gave up one run and five hits in his start for the Phillies.

The outing was the longest for a Phillies starter since Randy Wolf threw eight innings against Boston on June 14.

"If he throws like that all the time, he can win a lot of games," Phillies manager Larry Bowa said.

Winning a lot of games is what Philadelphia has not been able to do lately.

"It`s frustrating," Bowa said. "That`s the way this game is sometimes."

Notes:
Figueroa took Robert Person`s spot in the rotation. Person is serving a six-game suspension for throwing at Reggie Sanders on May 13. Person is scheduled to start the first game of a doubleheader against Florida on Thursday. ... Jones has 15 career homers against the Phillies. This season, he is hitting .423 (11-for-26) with three homers against Philadelphia. ... The attendance was 23,747, 4,190 higher than the Phillies average. It also included a walk-up crowd of 5,639, the largest mid-week walk-up since the Yankees series of June 7-9 1999.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Author: 6 ABC - Action News (AP)