Phillies Road Losses Mounting
By Matt Veasey
The Phillies began a 3-city, 8-game road trip with yet another loss, dropping a 6-4 decision to the host Cincinnati Reds in the first of a 3-game set at Great American Ballpark on Monday night.
Cole Hamels (5-5) was not at his best on this night. The lefty ace allowed 8 hits and walked 2 across his 6 innings pitched. He struck out 7, but labored through a 120-pitch outing in which he threw just 81 strikes.
Phillies are 7-21 (.250) on the road ... Their worst winning pct for a season on the road was .205 (16-62) in 1939 ...
— Bob Vetrone Jr. (@BoopStats) June 9, 2015
The Phillies bats beat up his counterpart, Reds starter Mike Leake, for 10 hits across 6 innings, but wasted a number of scoring opportunities. Leake did have better command and control than Hamels, throwing 70 strikes in his 96 pitches, but the strikes weren’t fooling anyone.
The host Reds scored single runs in each of the first three innings off Hamels. Todd Frazier singled home Brandon Phillips, who our own Tyler DiSalle highlighted just this morning here at TBOH, with the games first run in the 1st inning. Billy Hamilton manufactured a run in the 2nd with his blazing speed, and Zack Cozart doubled in a run in the 3rd inning.
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For the Phillies, Ryan Howard doubled home Ben Revere, who had led off the game with his own double, to briefly put the Phils up 1-0. Down 3-1 in the 4th inning, the Phils scored a pair on a 2-run double from Carlos Ruiz to tie it up.
After Leake got out of a bases loaded, one-out jam in the top of the 6th, the hosts scored a pair to retake the lead in the bottom. Those two scored via the longball, as Ivan DeJesus Jr lined a 2-run homer to left to put the Reds up 5-3.
Cozart led off the bottom of the 8th with a solo homer off Justin De Fratus for an insurance run. With the Reds now uup 6-3, it was Aroldis Chapman time in the 9th. Chapman hurt himself slightly, walking Carlos Ruiz, and then allowing Chooch to score when the “Cuban Missile” uncorked two wild pitches. But he settled in to strike out Chase Utley as the tying run, clinching a 6-4 win.
On Tuesday night it will be veteran Aaron Harang (4-6) for the Phillies taking on Anthony DeSclafani (4-4) in a game at 7:10pm Philly time.