PHILADELPHIA -- The Reds spent three days at Citizens Bank Park doing something few teams have managed against the Phillies during the last two weeks: answering every punch.
Every time the Phillies threatened to swing momentum back in their direction Wednesday afternoon, Cincinnati took it right back.
And by the time Sal Stewart’s two-run homer disappeared into the second deck in right field in the ninth inning, the Phillies’ six-series winning streak under interim manager Don Mattingly was over.
The Reds beat the Phillies, 9-4, in the series finale, sending the Phillies back to .500 at 25-25 through 50 games.
It was another uneven afternoon for Aaron Nola, whose season continues to drift further from the standard he has spent nearly a decade establishing in Philadelphia.
The Phillies handed Nola an early lead in the first inning when Trea Turner walked, stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error and scored on a sacrifice fly from Bryce Harper.
The lead lasted all of a few minutes.
Cincinnati jumped on Nola in the second inning, stringing together RBI hits from Nathaniel Lowe, Will Benson and catcher P. J. Higgins to build a 3-1 advantage. Higgins added another RBI in the fourth after Blake Dunn tripled to open the inning.
Nola’s final line — five innings, eight hits, four earned runs — was not catastrophic. But it also never felt particularly stable.
That has become part of the problem.
The Phillies are no longer asking Nola to be merely serviceable. They need him to look like a stabilizing force again. Through 10 starts, his ERA sits at 6.04. He has completed six innings only once in his last seven outings.
“I felt better today,” Nola said afterward. “Missed some balls over the plate and they capitalized on them.”
Meanwhile, Cincinnati left-hander Andrew Abbott spent most of the afternoon carving through a quiet Phillies lineup.
The Phillies did not record a hit until Brandon Marsh’s infield single in the fourth inning. At one point, they went nine consecutive innings without a hit dating back to Tuesday night.
Then, briefly, the game tilted.
After Dane Myers extended Cincinnati’s lead to 5-1 with an RBI double off Tim Mayza in the sixth, Alec Bohm answered with a line-drive solo homer into the left-field corner. Two batters later, Edmundo Sosa launched a two-run homer off reliever Brock Burke to pull the Phillies within one run.
For a moment, Citizens Bank Park stirred again.
But the Phillies never found the shutdown inning they desperately needed.
The Reds immediately answered in the seventh when Lowe hammered a two-run double off the wall in right-center against Orion Kerkering. Stewart’s ninth-inning homer off José Alvarado removed any remaining suspense.
That was the theme of the entire series.
Outside of Bryson Stott’s decisive eighth-inning homer Monday night, the Reds consistently reclaimed control whenever the Phillies threatened to shift momentum.
“We really just weren’t able to get our momentum going,” Mattingly said. “We kind of have it, but we were never able to sustain it.”
The Phillies also played a third straight game without Kyle Schwarber, who remains sidelined with what Mattingly described as a stomach issue. Schwarber was available to pinch hit but never appeared.
Even with the series loss, the Phillies are still 16-6 since Mattingly replaced Rob Thomson in the dugout. But after climbing back over .500 and stabilizing their season over the last three weeks, Wednesday felt like a reminder of how thin the margin still is for this club.
The Phillies will try to regroup Thursday before opening a weekend series Friday night against the Cleveland Guardians at Citizens Bank Park. Cristopher Sánchez is scheduled to start opposite Cleveland right-hander Gavin Williams.
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