Halladay struggles, Ruiz with career night as Phils lose wild one in extras

PBR - Fact: When Roy Halladay was handed four runs or more of support offensively in his career before Wednesday night, he was flawless.

Well, there is a first time for everything.

Halladay took on Atlanta at Turner Field and began by pitching his usual game through the four innings while having a six-run lead to work with.

But, things fell apart for the Phillies' ace midway through a wild 15-13  that ended in 10 innings.

After Shane Victorino tied the game at 13-13 in the ninth once again when beating out a run-scoring infield single with two outs, the veteran Chipper Jones crushed a two-run walk-off home run in the 11th inning.

The loss puts the Phils back to three games behind the Braves in the National League East standings.

Braves catcher Brian McCann smashed a grand slam in the fifth inning to tie the game, 6-6, and Atlanta scored twice more the next inning to take the lead. The Phillies offense was able to respond and comeback ... but only for a short period.

Carlos Ruiz homered off reliever Eric O'Flaherty in the seventh for a three-run shot to left field, then hit another three-run double the next inning to take back the lead, but the Phils let up with the bullpen allowing a five-run eighth inning.

Ruiz was 3-for-5 with career-high seven RBI as the Phillies (12-13) continued to crawl out of the early-season slump with 17 hits total. Chooch is the first time in Phillies history with seven RBI in a single game.

However, the other story within the game was Halladay and his struggles, as the veteran pitcher is now 107-1 now when pitching with a lead of four runs or more.

He gave up eight runs in 5 1/3 innings, more runs than he gave up in each start combined. Luckily for Doc, he was handed a no contest after the bats were able to take back the lead.

That said, the relievers came in and pitched poorly, especially Jose Contreras after allowing three earned runs in less than an inning of work.

On the other side Braves (15-11) pitcher Tommy Hanson relied heavily on his curveball, but through only 3 2/3 innings before being chased off the mound.

The Phils got on the board in the third when Shane Victorino sat on a breaking ball from Hanson and shot it past the sprawling first basemen Freddie Freeman for a run-scoring single that drove in Jimmy Rollins.

Two batters later, Laynce Nix worked a 2-2 count with the bases loaded before crushing a curve over Atlanta right fielder Eric Hinske that cleared the bases for a three-run double to make it 4-0 Phillies.

In the fifth, Ruiz nailed a double to the warning track that scored Ty Wigginton before scoring on second basemen Freddy Galvis' two-bagger the next at-bat to break the game open, 6-0.

Joe Blanton (2-3, 3.81 ERA) will face Braves right-hander Randall Delgado (2-2, 6.30 ERA) tomorrow afternoon in the final game of the series before heading to Washington.