Phillies' offense powers series-evening win over the Reds

Scott Lauber, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jul 5, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

PHILADELPHIA — Ranger Suárez could’ve thrown his signature sinker. Or a cutter. Even a four-seam fastball. Instead, he opted for another changeup — and still struck out Austin Hays.

Suárez blew a kiss skyward as he walked to the dugout.

And then, just like that, he was gone.

It was the end of the fifth inning. Suárez had thrown only 80 pitches in his second-to-last start before the All-Star break. But the Phillies decided to hand a tie game to the bullpen.

The gambit paid off. Four relievers combined for 12 outs, and Alec Bohm swatted a tiebreaking two-run to deep left-center field in the sixth inning of a series-evening 5-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds before 42,045 paying customers in Citizens Bank Park.

Kyle Schwarber broke it open with a two-run homer in the eighth inning. It came against a lefty, of course (Schwarber leads the National League with 13 homers vs. lefties), and was his team-leading 27th homer.

And it provided breathing room for lefty Matt Strahm, who took the baton in the ninth inning after Orion Kerkering doused a two-on, nobody-out brushfire caused by an error by shortstop Trea Turner with a 3-1 lead in the eighth.

The Phillies (52-37) maintained at least their half-game lead over the Mets in the NL East and will send ace Zack Wheeler to the mound Sunday in the finale against the Reds (46-43), the last home game before the break.

For five innings, it was a duel between two tough lefties.

Suárez didn’t yield a hit until the fourth inning; Reds starter Nick Lodolo countered by retiring 13 of the first 16 batters. The Reds scored first when Will Benson tagged Suárez for a solo homer in the fifth; the Phillies answered with Edmundo Sosa’s fifth-inning solo shot against Lodolo.

The Phillies talked about trading Bohm in the offseason, with the Reds among the potential partners. Suárez’s name came up in conversations, too.

Sometimes, the best trades are the ones that aren’t made.

Suárez’s streak of quality starts ended at 10, only because he didn’t complete six innings for the first time since May 4, his first start after opening the season on the injured list. But he has allowed a total of 10 earned runs in 73⅓ innings over his last 11 starts for a 1.23 ERA.

After Suárez breezed through three innings, the Reds made him work harder in the fourth and fifth.

In the fourth inning, the Reds loaded the bases on a leadoff single, a one-out double, and a two-out walk before Suárez got Jose Trevino to ground out. In the fifth, Suárez gave up the homer to Benson and back-to-back two-out singles to Santiago Espinal and Elly De La Cruz before striking out Hays.

That’s when the Phillies decided Suárez had enough.

And they did enough to win the game anyway.