After scoring 17 runs in their previous two games, the Reds one run came on a home run by Will Benson, but the Reds were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine runners.
They knew they were in for an immense struggle because they were facing left-hander Ranger Suarez.
His credentials: a 7-2 record with a 2.00 earned run average. Four straight starts of seven innings or more. Ten straight quality starts. A 0.99 earned run average over his last eight starts.
What’s that song by Sia: “I’m unstoppable. I’m invincible. Yeah, I win every single game.”
Well, the Reds did something few teams do to Suarez. They chased him from the game after only five innings. They had five hits at the time, but only one run.
Amazingly, it came in the fifth inning from number nine hitter Will Benson, the only left-handed hitter in the Reds lineup. He picked on Suarez’s first pitch of the fourth and drilled a no-doubter 403 feet deep into the right field stands. It was only the sixth hit by a left-hander against Suarez all season and the first home run by a left-hander.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The lead only lasted until the Phillies batted in the bottom of the fifth. Nick Lodolo had given up no runs and two hits over the first four innings.
But with one out in the fourth, number eight hitter Edmundo Sosa went the other way and dropped a game-tying home run into the right field seats.
“I put it outside where I wanted it, but he put a good swing on it to the backside (opposite way) for a homer. That was very impressive, a good swing by him,” Lodolo told reporters after the game.
But at 1-1 after five, the Reds figured they had the Phillies cornered. The Phillies one vulnerability is a shaky bullpen. But it didn’t work that way.
When the Reds beat the Phillies in Friday’s opener, 9-6, they had no runs and no hits over the last 4 1/3 innings against four Philadelphia bullpenners.
On Saturday, after Suarez left, four Phillies relief pitchers silenced the Reds on no runs and three hits over the final four innings.
The Reds were afforded some chances, but not many.
“When you have a few, not a lot, it becomes more glaring,” Reds manager Tito Francona told reporters after the game.
The most glaring surfaced in the fourth inning when they loaded the bases but fizzled.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Santiago Espinal opened the inning with a single and Elly De La Cruz flied to deep left. Austin Hays doubled on a full count, putting runners on third and second with one out. Spencer Steer struck out, but Noelvi Marte walked to fill the bases.
Jose Trevino stranded ‘em all by grounding out.
After Benson’s leadoff homer in the fifth, the Reds produces a pair of two-out singles by Espinal and De La Cruz.
Austin Hays stranded ‘em by taking a called third strike.
The Reds had one last opportunity in the eighth when the Phillies led, 3-1. De La Cruz singled for the second time and Phillies shortstop Trea Turner fumble-fingered Hays’ double play ball, putting Reds on second and first with no out.
Spencer Steer stranded ‘em by hitting into a double play and and Noelvi Marte grounded out.
Philadephia broke the 1-1 tie in the sixth. Kyle Schwarber led off the inning and Lodolo had a 2-and-1 count. He appeared to throw strike two, but umpire Will Little saw it differently and called it ball three. Lodolo appeared disturbed by the call and walked Schwarber.
He bounced back to strike out Bryce Harper for the third time. Harper was 0 for 4 with four strikeouts and stranded three teammates in crucial situations.
But the next batter, Alex Bohm, bombed a two-run home run to straightaway center to make it 3-1 as Lodolo squatted on the mound with his head down.
The game got away in the eighth when second baseman Matt McLain misplayed Trea Turner’s grounder for an error and Schwarber cranked his 27th home run into the left field seats off Brent Suter.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Lodolo squirmed through to a quality start —six innings, three runs, four hits. But two of those hits were game-damaging home runs.
“I made a couple of mistakes and they made me pay for it,” said Lodolo. “On Bohm, I was just trying to get it up and didn’t get it up.”
But Bohm did.
“I was able to move the ball around and hit my spots and miss spots in good places,” he added. “Overall, I threw it well, but that one made me pay big.”
Even though the Reds rid themselves of Suarez fairly early, only Benson touched home plate.
“He’s got four pitches,” said Francona. “He has the changeup and cutter going one way and a fastball...he’s pretty good. You can see why his numbers are what they are.”
And Lodolo?
“My goodness, I thought his stuff was good and his changeup was probably the best we’ve seen all year,” said Francona. “All the hits off him were fastballs that just weren’t located probably as well as they should have been.”
And for the Reds, Sosa, Bohm and Schwarber put them where they shouldn’t have been.
“Some of that is their lineup,” Francona said about the Phillies home runs. “You know what? I looked at D.J. (pitching coach Derek Johnson) and said, ‘The shadows for hitters are getting bad.’ Next pitch, home run. Maybe I should probably shut up.”
NEXT GAME
Who: Cincinnati at Philadelphia
When: 1:35 p.m., Sunday, July 6
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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