As Mr. Cub Ernie Banks used to say, “Its a great day…let’s play two.”
In fact, it was a great day for Atlanta to play two, winning three times in two days only made it better.

Most people (these days) see the division rivalry being the Nationals and the Braves, but for those of us who go back a little farther, it was the Phillies that we were always concerned about.
Howard, Rollins and Utley are all past their prime, but a Phillies beatdown still feels good, especially since they just swept us at home.

Game I: Braves 10, Phillies 3
Hats off to Ryan Howard, a traditional Braves killer, for booting two consecutive groundballs in the 4th to put the Braves on the board and tie the score 2-2.

Justin continued his hot streak and crushed a 3-1 pitch to score Andrelton and Freddie, making it 4 – 2 in the 6th.

In the 8th, with Bastardo pitching in relief of Hernandez, two walks and a bases clearing triple by Tommy La Stella break the game wide open. La Stella scored on a first pitch, wild pitch by Luis Garcia in to try to stop the damage.

Ervin got his first win since May 31, getting 4 runs of support which is equal to the last 4 games he’s pitched. He was typically Ervin, 7 hits, 2 BB, a good fastball, good curveball. He kept the ball down, got a lot of strikes. He looked a little rough in the 1st, but got into a groove after the 2nd inning and stayed in control until the 7th. His gamescore (GSC) is
56… with 100 being a perfect (or nearly perfect) game, anything above 50 is considered a quality start. He is now 6 and 5 on the season. Would like to see Ervin get back into April form and pull off about 5 victories in a row.

7 hits for the boys overall, Chris Johnson 2 – 5, 2 RBI, Justin Upton 2 – 5, 3 RBI, Tommy The Stellar 1 – 5, 3 RBI, Freddie 0 -2, 3 BB and 4 runs, JHey 0 – 3, 2 BB, RBI, Andrelton 1
– 4, 1BB, 2 runs.

Game II: Braves 5, Phillies 1
Even better with 13 hits on a day that David Hale took the mound and beat the Phillies Sean O’Sullivan to get his 3rd win of the season, going 5 innings, 4 hits and only 1 ER.

The Braves scored in the 1st with Jordan Schafer in for BJ. He reaches on an infield single,
steals 2nd, advances to 3rd on a Freeman groundout and crosses the plate after Justin singled.
In the 6th, with 2 outs, Justin again singles, Doumit singles, CJ singles and Justin scores.
La Stella comes up again with a double to deep left, scoring Doumit and CJ. (Way to go Tommy!!)
Doumit homered in the 8th to seal the deal and our boys complete the sweep.

Varvarro pitched 2 innings giving up 2 hits and 0 runs. Jorden Walden was lights out and newly Gus Schlosser closed out the bottom of the 9th.

Freddie, Justin, Ryan and Tommy each had 2 hits, CJ had 3. Christian Bethancourt up from Gwinnett also got a hit in his 2014 opener.

The Braves are now back in 1st place.