By Sam Bush
When Phillies fans look back on this season during the offseason that is coming sooner than they had hoped, yesterday’s painful 4-3 loss in Cincy will stick out.
They are now four games back of the Chicago Cubs for the second wild card playoff spot with only 23 games to play.
And you can’t blame J.T. Realmuto, who almost singlehandedly lifted the Phillies to a win.
But Phillip Ervin homered leading off the 11th inning, and the Reds won.
Ervin hit an opposite-field drive to right off Nick Vincent (1-3) that barely eluded Bryce Harper’s attempt at a leaping catch.
”Obviously, it’s a super disappointing loss,” Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said. ”Our path to success is going to be through our offense and having big innings, and we weren’t able to do that in these games.”
Realmuto tripled in the fourth and tied the game in the eighth against Robert Stephenson when he led off with his 21st homer. The catcher also stopped a seventh-inning rally attempt by nabbing Jose Peraza off second base with a pinpoint throw.
The Phils rallied from a 5-0 deficit to tie the score on Wednesday, then lost 8-5.
”It’s definitely frustrating,” Realmuto said. ”We won the first two games and we had a great chance to win three out of four, and we’re thinking maybe we can sweep the series. Everybody in the dugout felt the momentum. We put ourselves in position to win the game, but the offense didn’t get it done.”
”We’ve still got plenty of time, but we have to turn it around quickly,” he added. ”We’ve got some important games coming up.”
Center fielder Adam Haseley also had two hits for the Phillies. Harper was 1 for 4 with a bunt single, a walk and two stolen bases
Vincent was the ninth pitcher for the Phillies. Starter Jason Vargas gave up two runs and four hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Matt Bowman (2-0) pitched the 11th for the win. Reds starter Sonny Gray allowed one run and four hits in six innings.
Realmuto missed a home run by about a foot with a line drive off the top of the left-field wall leading off the fourth, then scored on Rhys Hoskins’ double.
Jose Iglesias hit a two-run homer in the sixth off Vargas and Eugenio Suarez greeted former teammate Jared Hughes with his 41st homer, an opposite-field drive to right-center that just cleared the fence on Hughes’ first pitch. Philadelphia claimed Hughes on waivers from the Reds on Aug. 15.
Scott Kingery scored from second in the seventh when Hasely singled to right and Aristides Aquino kicked the ball twice for an error.
