Game Time
Both starters, however, wouldn’t have to worry about the weather. They were gone by the end of the fifth inning. Oddly, neither had pitched horribly despite giving up nine runs between them. Nola mixed pitches well as usual but didn’t have his best curve, while Bauer worked effectively up in the zone, and perhaps mixed his six pitches even better.
Both had terrible single innings – Nola the second, Bauer the fifth – when they each gave up four runs. The difference as the game went to the relief staffs was the home run Nola had given up to Joey Votto in the first.
Former Reds star Jay Bruce took Nola off the hook in the seventh, though, with a pinch-hit homer to center that left the field in a hurry.
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Then total weirdness broke out.
Pinch hitter Jose Iglesias took Phillies reliever Jose Alvarez deep in the bottom of the inning, giving the Reds a 6-5 lead. Then, Phillies shortstop Jean Segura bounced a foul ball off home plate and bloodied his own mouth in the top of the eighth. (He lined out softly to short after a trainer’s visit.)
In the bottom of that inning, Philadelphia’s rookie center fielder Adam Haseley stole a home run from former Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis with an over-the-wall catch, then hid the ball until he had trotted ten yards back into right-center field. Where he smiled. Shyly.
This was followed relatively quickly by a home run off the bat of Reds reliever Michael Lorenzen, putting Cincy up 8-5. Really. Then Lorenzen stayed in the game and played – where else? Center field.
(Actually, Lorenzen has been MLB’s secret two-way player for several years, compiling a 19-20 pitching record and hitting seven home runs, including this game’s win and lost ball. He also posted a blown save on this particular evening. The guy was all over the box score.)
In the bottom of the ninth, three Phillies couldn’t solve another Iglesias, the Reds closer.
In other words, the last three innings were 2019 in miniature for the Phillies – a lot of promise, definite strangeness, and another loss, or in the frequently invoked phrase by sports fans around the Delaware Valley, “You couldn’t make it up.”