Nola's excellent outing boosts Phillies to .500 mark

Nola’s excellent outing boosts Phillies to .500 mark

Rebecca Serad

April 11 2018

By: Rebecca Serad, Sports Talk Philly Staff

Final: Philadelphia Phillies 6, Cincinnatti Reds 1 ❖ Attendance: 20,895

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — The Philadelphia Phillies (5-5) secured their second straight series victory with tonight's win over the Cincinnati Reds (2-8). Phils starter Aaron Nola was on top of his game, only allowing a single run on three hits over eight innings. The righty walked an uncharacteristic three batters, but also struck out six. Nola had fantastic command overall and finished with 103 pitches. With this outing, he became only the fifth pitcher in baseball to throw eight innings this season.

The bats took a while to warm up. The Phillies didn't get their first hit until the sixth inning, but once they started to get hits, they didn't stop. Cesar Hernandez's sixth inning single not only broke up Reds starter Homer Bailey's no-hitter, but also extended his hitting streak to seven games. Shortstop J.P. Crawford broke a 0-18 stretch with a single that knocked in what ended up being the winning run. Scott Kingery hit his first Major League grand slam in the eighth inning to cushion the Phillies' lead. All of the Phils' runs were scored on two-out hits, which is a good sign for the team moving forward.

WP: Aaron Nola (1-0, 1.96 ERA) ❖ LP: Jared Hughes (0-1, 3.38 ERA)

Hub: Game Summary ❖ Starting Pitchers ❖ At the Plate ❖ Bullpen ❖ What's Next

Game Summary

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
CIN	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	3	1
PHI	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	4	X	6	6	0

It was a very quiet game for both sides until the top of the fifth inning. With two outs, center fielder Billy Hamilton walked. He stole second base during the at-bat of Jesse Winker. It was Hamilton's second stolen base of the game and third of the series. He scored easily on a single by Winker to right field to give the Reds a 1-0 lead. Jose Peraza grounded out to end the inning and limit the damage to one run.

It took the Phillies until the bottom of the sixth inning to get their hit, but it helped them tie the game. With one out, Cesar Hernandez singled to right field. A strikeout by Carlos Santana brought Odubel Herrera to the plate. Hernandez stole second base during Herrera's at-bat. The attempt to throw him out by catcher Tucker Barnhart went into center field, but Hernandez wasn't able to advance an extra base. That ultimately didn't matter, as Herrera doubled off the wall in right-center field, easily scoring Hernandez to tie the game. Rhys Hoskins struck out for the final out and Herrera was stranded at second.

The Phils took the lead in the seventh. Right fielder Nick Williams led off the inning with a double to left field. One out later, Andrew Knapp grounded out to second, allowing Williams to advance to third. This brought J.P. Crawford to the plate with the winning run 90 feet away and two outs. The struggling shortstop delivered, singling to right field to score Williams to make it a 2-1 game. Pitcher Aaron Nola struck out to end the inning.

The Phillies added on in a big way in the eighth. With one out, Santana walked. Herrera followed with a double to center field to put runners on second and third. After Hoskins struck out for the second out, Williams was intentionally walked to load the bases. Scott Kingery was up to the challenge of hitting with two outs and crushed his first Major League grand slam over the left field wall to make it a 6-1 ballgame. Knapp struck out for the third out, but the Phillies had scored more than enough runs in support of Nola to secure the victory.

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Starting Pitchers