"Go now and die in what way seems best to you." Reds lose in convincing fashion, 9-6.

Published July 10, 2009 at 3:21 a.m.

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Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Chan Ho Park. Threw three shutout innings of relief, allowing no hits and striking out 4. He also stayed in to bat and singled.

Key Plays

The Reds started positively. Ramon Hernandez walked to lead off the second inning, and Jonny Gomes hit a single. Then Edwin Encarnacion hit a triple to drive them both in, and Micah Owings helped his own cause with a sac fly. The Reds were leading 3-0 and spirits were high.
In a foreshadowing of ugliness to come, Chase Utley hit a sharp ball to centerfield that took a nasty bounce on Willy Taveras. Utley was able to scoot all the way home with an inside-the-park home run. Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth followed that with back to back doubles, and suddenly the Reds only led by one.
That is until Edwin homered in the fourth inning!
In the bottom half the of the inning, Carlos Ruiz and Jimmy Rollins singled, then the NL's newest All-Star, Shane Victorino, hit a ball that Brandon Phillips badly misplayed. It went into centerfield and was scored a single, but Ruiz and Rollins both scored and the game was tied.
Phillips made amends, however, with the Reds last hurrah. After replacement right fielder Chris Dickerson did something that Jay Bruce can't do (get a hit), Phillips hit his third home run in two games to put the Reds up 6-4.
The fifth inning was the undoing for Micah Owings, as he walked Ryan Howard and Greg Dobbs. Dick Pole went out to the mound to talk to him, and told Micah to give Pedro Feliz something to hit. He did, and Feliz's single scored Howard. Josh Roenicke then came in and walked noted Canadian Matt Stairs, and gave up a run on noted suckbucket Paul Bako's force out. The Reds might have had a double play, but Roenicke didn't cover first. Out came Dusty, in came Danny Ray Herrera, and into the outfield went a batted ball from Jimmy Rollins. Feliz came into score. Victorino drew a walk, then Danny Ray threw a pitch under the glove of Ramon Hernandez and Bako came in to score. Just like that, the Reds were losing 8-6.
And because what's a game against the Phillies without a Jayson Werth home run, Jayson Werth homered off of Danny Ray in the sixth.

via FanGraphs

(There are a bunch of really cool FanGraphs for games tonight. Lots of wild ones.)