Phillies Lose To Reds, 1-0, 11-2
CINCINNATI (AP) — The Phillies' struggles to hit brought them to a new low — two losses in one day.
Bruce had a pair of bases-loaded singles on Wednesday that sent the Cincinnati Reds to a 1-0 victory in the conclusion of a suspended game and an 11-2 win in the later one.
The Phillies wound up getting swept by the Reds for the first time since 1996, a bad stretch set up by some very bad offense.
"Our game is not together," manager Charlie Manuel said. "It seems like ever since the season started, we've been out of whack. Things haven't been working for us."
Nothing went well for them on Wednesday.
First, they lost a game suspended overnight by rain. Several hundred fans were in the stands to see Phillippe Aumont (1-2) pick the game up in the bottom of the ninth and give up Bruce's bases-loaded single only four batters later.
"It's frustrating to go out there and the game's over," Aumont said. "Now I have nine innings to think about what I've done wrong."
A lot more went wrong in the second game.
The crowd was 16,467 for the series finale, which started an hour and a half later. Bruce had a big hand in that one, too. He had a bases-loaded single to right field — just like the last one — that highlighted a five-run rally in the second inning off left-hander John Lannan (0-1), who was bothered by a sore left knee.
Lannan said he's had tendinitis above the knee, but it didn't bother him when he warmed up. He aggravated it during the first inning, and it got worse as he went along. He'll be examined on Thursday.
"I'm not going to go out there and do that again," Lannan said.
Reds starter Mike Leake (1-2) drove in a run with his first career triple during Cincinnati's 10-batter second inning. The Reds had two singles, a double, a triple, Todd Frazier's homer, a walk and a hit-by-pitch during the rally.
Leake, who leads all major league pitchers with 49 hits over the last four seasons, also had a pair of infield singles. The three hits matched his career high — he also did it in Philadelphia in 2010. Leake allowed three hits and didn't walk a batter in seven shutout innings.
The Phillies managed only four runs and 13 hits while getting swept in Cincinnati. They didn't even get to swing the bat during the conclusion of the suspended game.
Aumont was warming up to face Zack Cozart for the bottom of the ninth inning when heavy rained moved in on Tuesday night. Eighteen hours later, Cozart finally got his at-bat and singled to start the winning rally.
Joey Votto walked and center fielder Ben Revere lost Brandon Phillips' sinking liner in the sun, letting the ball go off his glove for an error that loaded the bases. Bruce finished it with his first-pitch single.
"That's baseball for you," Revere said. "I was shaded toward right field. I just stuck out my glove and hoped it (the ball) would hit it. It's a shame it has to go down like that. If the sun's not there, I make the catch."
Left-hander Aroldis Chapman (2-0) got the win without even warming up on Wednesday — he'd retired the last three batters before the rain came the previous night.
A measure of Philadelphia's offensive woes — it ended up with as many hits as there were renditions of the national anthem in the suspended game. The Phillies managed only two singles off Homer Bailey and Chapman.
The Reds allowed fans who attended the game on Tuesday to come back for the finish. There were several hundred of them in the stands when clubhouse assistant Josh Stewart sang the national anthem — the second one of the game.
The public address announcer went over the lineups again. Umpire Wally Bell was back behind the plate when the game resumed.
It was the Phillies' first suspended game since Game 5 of the 2008 World Series, when rain halted their matchup against Tampa Bay in the sixth inning. The only suspended game in World Series history wasn't resumed for two days, when the Phillies won it for the title.
The Reds' last suspended game was in 2004 against Houston, a game that was halted in the top of the 11th inning by rain. Cincinnati won it in 13 innings.
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