All nine hitters collected at least one hit, and Taijuan Walker pieced together his best outing of the season as the Phillies cruised to an 8-3 victory over the Reds at Great American Ballpark on Friday night.
Walker tossed six frames, scattering one run on four hits. He walked two and whiffed four.
"It was huge," Phillies manager Rob Thomson told reporters afterwards. "Then just using three relievers was huge too. We should have, for the first time in a long time, a full bullpen tomorrow. That's a good feeling to have.”
Walker had failed to get out of the fifth inning in his previous two starts.
"The biggest thing was to get through the six innings," Walker told reporters. "There's still a couple of things to work on."
Offensively, the Phillies put up five runs over the first three frames putting the game out of reach. Kyle Schwarber hit an RBI double in the first, Edmundo Sosa hit a solo homer in the second, and Nick Castellanos and Brandon Marsh each delivered extra base hits in the third to cement the victory.
Bryson Stott finished 1-for-5 and is hitting .383 on the year. Castellanos went 2-for-4 and upped his average to .308. J.T. Realmuto and Alec Bohm collected two RBIs each in the victory.
Jose Alvarado was dominant again in relief, whiffing three in one inning of work. He now has 16 strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings this season.
The two clubs continue their series on Saturday. Matt Strahm will go for the Phillies, while the Reds counter with right-hander Grahm Ashcraft.
