The Phillies and Reds played the rubber game of their series on Wednesday afternoon. The offense wasn’t great, but the main problem was that Aaron Nola and the bullpen simply couldn’t keep the Reds from scoring. The result was a 9-4 loss and the team’s first series loss under manager Don Mattingly.
The Phillies scored a first inning run thanks to Trea Turner walking, stealing a base, advancing on an error, and then going home on Bryce Harper’s sacrifice fly. It was a solid start and not at all representative
of how the rest of the day would go. Nola got the start for the Phillies and did Aaron Nola things. He had a clean first inning, but allowed a series of hits in the second. A double, single, and double and the game was tied.
Thanks to an RBI groundout and another single, the Reds were off to a 3-1 lead.
After Nola pitched out of trouble in the third, a leadoff triple by Blake Dunn and single by Higgins extended the lead to 4-1.
Nola pitched a clean fifth to end his afternoon. It wasn’t a disastrous outing, but it certainly wasn’t good either, and far too similar to most of his previous starts this year.
The bullpen didn’t fare much better. Back-to-back doubles in the sixth against Tim Mayza gave the Reds their fifth run.
The Phillies bats woke up at this point, and tried to make a game of it. Andrew Abbott kept the Phillies’ offense in check most of the day, but Alec Bohm chased him with a solo home run.
Going against reliever Brock Burke, Brandon Marsh singled, and Edmundo Sosa got the Phillies within one.
Mayza started the next inning, but after a single, Don Mattingly tried a mid-inning pitching change. Orion Kerkering was notoriously bad with inheriting runners in 2025, and he wasn’t good at it again on Wedneaday.
After giving up a single, he was on the verge of escaping unscathed, but an RBI double ended that dream.
The Phillies didn’t do much offensively after that, and it didn’t even matter that Jose Alvarado gave up a two-run home run in the ninth.
After an off day on Thursday, the Phillies will welcome the Guardians to town. Cristopher Sanchez will be on the mound, so there’s hope that the Phillies will be a little better at run prevention than they were on Wednesday.
