Jonathan India broke out of a 0-for-10 slump with a leadoff home run to start the game as the visiting Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-4 in the rubber game of the series on Sunday afternoon.
India finished the day with three hits for the short-handed Reds, who took two of three games in the weekend series to win their first series in Philadelphia since 2017.
Rookie Tyler Stephenson homered for the third straight game while Shogo Akiyama replaced an ejected Nick Castellanos and contributed with a two-run double sending the Phillies to their fourth loss in six games.
Lucas Sims (5-2) relieved starter Sonny Gray and escaped a two-out jam in the fifth to record the win while Mychal Givens recorded the final four outs for his third save.
Phillies starter Aaron Nola (7-7) surrendered the leadoff homer to India, to go with six hits, four runs and three walks over 4 1/3 innings to suffer his first loss since July 20, a string of five starts.
The Reds overcame the loss of two of their top run producers in the first three innings. Castellanos was ejected by home plate umpire Sean Barber for arguing balls and strikes as the third batter of the game. Reds manager David Bell hurried out to try and save Castellanos but was too late. Bell was eventually ejected by third base umpire Alan Porter.
Winker was pulled from the game in the bottom of the third inning. Winker was a late scratch from the series opener on Friday with back stiffness.
Phillies reliever Bailey Falter, who had walked one batter all season, walked Tyler Naquin with the bases loaded to force in India and give the Reds a 4-1 lead in the fifth.
The Phillies got two runs back in the bottom of the inning when Bryce Harper worked a bases-loaded walk off Gray and Didi Gregorius drove home Jean Segura with a sacrifice fly. Gray was lifted for Sims by acting manager Freddie Benevides, one out shy of qualifying for the win. Lucas struck out Andrew McCutchen with runners at first and second to end the threat.
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Tucker Barnhart’s RBI double in the eighth and Stephenson’s two-run pinch-hit home run put Cincinnati ahead, 7-3.
The Phillies threatened to get back in the game when they strung together three straight two-out hits in the eighth off reliever Luis Cessa, including an RBI double from Alec Bohm. But Givens induced a fly out to right from Segura to end the inning.
–Field Level Media