By: Matthew Mack

The Philadelphia Phillies played the surging Cincinnati Reds. The Reds are looking to make noise in the Wild Card race while Philadelphia try to hang on in the NL East.

Friday night was all Cincy. Phillies Starter Zack Wheeler did not have his best start. All the runs the Reds manufactured were off of the long ball. Joey Votto three-run homer in the fourth, Nick Castellanos solo bomb in the sixth. The Reds ran away with the game in hand six-to-one.

In the second game, the Phillies got the scoring started with a Ronald Torreyes hitting a solo home run in the third. J.T. Realmuto and Travis Jankowski also knocked in RBIs for Philly. Matt Moore started this one for Philadelphia he struck out eight in six innings of work. Philly took the win six-to-one.

Sunday afternoon, it was the Reds starting the scoring early with a Jonathan India lead-off home run. They tacked on more runs as Shogo Akiyama doubled in two more to extend the lead in the third. Philly finally put a run on the board with Harper’s sacrifice fly in the fourth. After the Reds tacked on another run in the next inning, the Phils went back to work to load the bases and added two more runs. From there, it was all Cincy. They scored three which included a two-run Tucker Barnhart home run in the eighth. The Phillies lost the game and first-place in the division.

So the Phillies have a day off and then go on the road and travel to Arizona to face the Diamondbacks. Once again the starting pitching is either coming or going. The inconsistencies are starting to show up again in the rotation. This offense knows that they need more than four or five runs to win ball games. The bullpen is starting to come together but the starters need to go deeper.