The Reds had an 800-pound gorilla of a nemesis on life support Thursday night, but couldn’t find a way finish him off. They had never beaten Phillies starter Cole Hamels and hadn’t won a series in Philadelphia in five seasons.
The Reds lost to the Phillies, 4-3, on John Mayberry Jr.’s bases-loaded, walk-off single in the 11th inning. Cincinnati had a 3-0 lead on Hamels in the top of the sixth, but couldn’t add more runs and were shut down by good bullpen performances. And the shorthanded Reds bullpen couldn’t hold the lead. Instead of taking three out of four in the series, they settled for a split.
“It was a long, tough night,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said following the four-hour, 24-minute game. “You want three [wins] if you get a chance. They just had too many opportunities.”
Baker did not have closer Aroldis Chapman, nor setup man Jonathan Broxton, at his disposal. Chapman had worked five of the previous six days and the last two in a row.
“We had to call on the other guys,” Baker said.
The Reds were leading 3-2 in the eighth when reliever Sean Marshall gave up a one-out single to Domonic Brown. Looking for a double play, Sam LeCure got two balls hit on the ground, but both went for singles by Mayberry and Erik Kratz to load the bases. The tying run then scored on Jimmy Rollins’ sacrifice to short left field, with Brown beating Ryan Ludwick’s throw home.
It marked the first time all season that Johnny Cueto was the victim of a blown save, which prevented him from being first in the Majors to 17 wins.
Freshly recalled rookie reliever J.J. Hoover worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the ninth-inning by getting a double play. Hoover found himself with runners on second and third with one out in the 10th and dodged the danger again when he got Juan Pierre to end the inning with a pop out.
Alfredo Simon took over for the Reds in the 11th inning and Kevin Frandsen led off with a single to right field. Chase Utley was next and he laced a double down the right-field line. Ryan Howard was intentionally walked to load the bases with no outs. With one out, Mayberry grounded a single through the left side to end it.
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