By Hal McCoy
One of manager Tito Francona’s mix-and-match lineups turned into an Afternoon Delight Wednesday for the Cincinnati Reds..
The Reds sprayed 15 hits into all corners of Citizens Bank Park on their way to a 9-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Francona decided to put Elly De La Cruz at designated hitter, meaning a complete position shuffle.
He had Matt McLain at shortstop, Spencer Steer at second base, Sal Stewart at third base, Nathaniel Lowe at first base and Blake Dunn in center field.
And he gave catcher Tyler Stephenson the day off and inserted P.J. Higgins behind the plate.
To say it worked is a massive understatement, even though McLain and De La Cruz, batting first and second, were 0 for 10 with four strikeouts, three by De La Cruz.
They weren’t needed. Everybody else picked them up as the Reds won the series, two games to one.
It was the first series loss for Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly. Philadelphia had won six straight series since Mattingly replaced fired manager Rob Thomson when the team was 9-19.
When the Phillies won Friday’s opener, they had won 16 of 20 with Mattingly in charge. And the Reds had lost 13 of 17.
The Reds took advantage of the fact that superstar Kyle Schwarber missed all three games with a stomach virus and the team’s other big gun, Bryce Harper, was 0 for 10 with four strikeouts.
And the Reds missed Philadelphia’s two best starters, Cristropher Sanchez and Zack Wheeler.
The contributions were massive from Cincinnati’s bats.
Stewart had his first career four-hit game, including a long distance 441-foot two-run homer in the ninth.
Lowe ripped a pair of doubles and drove in three runs.
Dunn had two hits, including a triple and scored twice.
JJ Bleday had two hits off left-handed pitchers and scored two runs.
Even the light-hitting Higgins produced two well-placed soft singles that drove in a run each time.
Reds starter Andrew Abbott pitched 5 1/3 innings and gave up two runs and three hits to win his fourth game (4-2).
In the early going, it was the middle and lower half of the order furnishing the thunder.
Through the first four innings against Philadelphia’s veteran Aaron Nola, McLain, De La Cruz and Bleday were 0 for 8 with four strikeouts.
But four through nine was 8 for 12 with four runs and a 4-1 lead.
Higgins singled home a run during a three-run second innng and singled home another run in the fourth.
And it was 5-1 after five, but when Abbott gave up a one-out home run in the sixth to Alec Bohm, Francona brought in Brock Burke and immediate trouble.
He gave up a two-out single to Brandon Marsh and a home run to Edmundo Sosa and suddenly the Reds only led by one, 5-4.
Another bullpen blow-up? Not on this day. Connor Phillips, Graham Ashcraft and Sam Moll retired nine of the last 10 batters. The only runner to reach was a two-out single in the ninth off Moll by Bryson Stott.
And the offense showed resiliency after the Phillies crept to within 5-4 in the sixth.
The Reds immediately scored two in the seventh on singles by Bleday and Stewart and a two-run double by Lowe to push the Reds three ahead, 7-4.
Stewart, emerging from a slump, put the ribbon on it with his two-run homer in the ninth. He had seven hits in the series with two homers.
“We kinda went through a rough time, but the resilience this team has is second to none,” said Stewart. “I always trust these guys and I know we’re going to keep playing hard.”
And he trusted himsef through the bad times.
“Everyone knows I went through a rough stretch,” he said. “All I was trying to do was show patience. I just continued to come out and play hard for the team. I was more hard on myself, I was down, and I don’t like to do that.”
It was a shaky start for Abbott and Higgins. Abbott walked the first two batters in the first inning. After he walked Trea Turner, Turner stole second and continued to third when Higgins threw the ball into center field.
Turner scored on Harper’s sacrifice fly and the Phillies had a 1-0 lead without a hit.
The Phillies didn’t have a hit until an infield nubber by Brandon Marsh with one out in the fourth. Steer then made a leaping grab at second on Sosa’s line drive and doubled Marsh off first base.
Abbortt gave up a single to Turner with two outs in the fifth and Turner again stole second on another bad throw by Higgins, but Abbott struck out Adolis Garcia.
Abbott then retired Harper to open the sixth, but gave up the home run to Bohm and his day was over.
“Abbott didn’t look real sharp with his command early, but he stayed out there on a hot day (92°) with nearly 100 pitches (96) and gave us a chance to win,” said Francona.
“P.J. Higgins, second time he caught Abbott, did a really good job out there,” he added. “And he chipped in a couple of big hits and got a couple of big (ABS challenge) calls because he knows the strike zone so well.”
During his post-game media meeting, the phone on Francona’s desk blared and he said, “If I don’t answer, do I get fired?”
Not if his team continues to play the way it did the last two. But after an off day Thursday, the Reds are home Friday night to a surprisingly successful St. Louis Cardinals team.