Braves and Phillies regular season series opens with excitement

The Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies opened their first of six regular season series in Philadelphia on Monday night and the last few innings of the game provided a great deal of excitement. The Braves and Phillies are heated division rivals in the National League East and this game will be the first of many exciting games this season.

The excitement began in the top of the 8th inning when the Braves had a 2-1 lead. Braves catcher Evan Gattis would hit his second home run of the night to put the Braves up 3-1. Then second baseman Dan Uggla and shortstop Andrelton Simmons would also hit solo home runs to put the Braves up 5-1 heading into the bottom of the 8th inning reports the Associated Press. This was also the first time since 2008 that the Atlanta Braves hit three straight home runs.

In the bottom of the 8th inning, Braves relief pitcher Luis Avilan would load the bases with no outs, would then strike out Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard then right fielder Marlon Byrd would drive in two runs to make it 5-3. It then got worse for the Braves as left fielder Dominic Brown hit a three-run home run to give the Phillies a 6-5 lead heading into the 9th inning.

According to MLB, the excitement from this game wasn’t over yet. The Phillies closing pitcher Jake Diekman would walk Braves outfielder B.J. Upton, first baseman Freddie Freeman reached on a ground ball when they tried the force out at second base and a walk to outfielder Justin Upton loaded the bases. Then Dan Uggla came up to bat, already with one home run on the evening.

Dan Uggla would then hit his second home run of the night, this one being a grand slam that went over 400 feet into Citizens Bank Park that stunned the Philadelphia Phillies fans. The Braves would take a 9-6 lead and thanks to closing relief pitcher David Carpenter, the Braves win the first game of this series. The first game of this series provided quite a bit of excitement and the rest of their match ups this season should be equally as exciting.

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