Phillies Commit Costly Errors, Fall Flat at the Plate in Loss to Reds
Aug 13, 2025; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (12) reacts after a play in the eighth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
The Phillies have not scored before the 8th inning in this series, so a slow-starting offense in this series and weather delaying the start of the game by an hour today didn’t help the Phillies tonight.
Cristopher Sanchez gave up a run in the bottom of the 4th, but seemed to recover until the 6th when the real issue in the game crept up, the Phils made defensive miscues, including a play where there were 2 errors and directly led to a three-run inning, and ended Sanchez’s night.
Jordan Romano came in the 7th, and though he should have been out of the inning on a mixup on a ball hit to the right side of the infield off the bat of Elly De La Cruz where Bryce Harper went after the play initially though he had no chance, loading the bases for Miguel Andujar, who deposited the 4th consecutive slider that Romano threw to him into the at bat into the left field stands, making the score 8-0 where it stayed.
Though Great American Ballpark is notoriously a hitters’ park, the Phils clearly didn’t get that memo.
Their offense has disappeared over the last 2 games, and adding the mental mistakes in the field today was too much for the Phillies in tonight’s series finale against the Reds. Granted Hunter Greene was pitching well in the game in his second game back off the injured list, but the the Phillies offense has been consistently inconsistent this season, and in this series the Phils didn’t score a run before the 8th inning, and in the last 2 games only one run, on Harper’s late home run in yesterday’s game. The last 2 games bring back some painful memories of last October, when the offense was shut down by top-level pitching.
In this game, the Phils didn’t do themselves any favors by mental mistakes in the field, which snowballed and made the game untenable for the Phils. In the 6th inning alone, Brandon Marsh tried to switch to the backhand and booted the ball; it wasn’t called an error, but allowed De La Cruz to score from first off a hit off the bat of Austin Hayes.
Later in the inning, the Phils made 2 errors on the same play, allowing 2 runs to score, and Noelvi Marte to score on a Little League home run. It started with a high throw from Marsh, which dribbled away from J.T. Realmuto, backed up by Sanchez, who tried to throw out Marte at third, but the umpire called interference on Bryson Stott, making the throw not necessary, and allowed the 4th run of the game to score.
In the next inning, another mental lapse on a ball hit to the right side, and Harper tried to go after the ball and Romano didn’t get off the mound, but he wouldn’t have had a chance anyhow, the only one who had a chance to cover first would have been Harper with the speed of De La Cruz, which would have been the third out, instead it loaded the bases and Jordan Romano served up a flat slider to Andujar and gave up his second grand slam of the season.
Though Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner accounted for 2 of Phils’ 3 hits, Harper and Nick Castellanos are in the midst of terrible dry spells. Bryce is 4-32 in his last 8 games with 13 strikeouts, and Castellanos has one hit in his last 6 games.
Again, this is a Wednesday night game in August, but this is the type of challenge that the Phillies will face in the postseason. They even brought in Harrison Bader to bolster the lineup, but that hasn’t helped the offensive inconsistencies very much in the small sample size thus far.
Against a team like the Cincinnati Reds, you can’t give them any opportunities, and tonight the Phils did just that, and took a series loss in a game that was winnable until the errors and miscues directly led to 7 runs. I think an offensive shake-up needs to happen, and maybe giving Harper and Castellanos a game off in Washington is needed. Wasting Sanchez outings like this shouldn’t happen. He threw well, though he gave up 3 earned runs, it should have been 2, struck out 6, and walked one over 6 innings. Though he gets the loss, this one isn’t on him. He did make one of the errors, but this game was just ugly and one to turn the page on.
Steve Hamilton
Steve may have been born in California, but don’t let that fool you. After dating a local woman and clashing with her and her family over sports for decades, he has an affinity for Philly sports. Balancing love for Philly and Bay Area sports teams may seem impossible, we can all agree that the Cowboys are the true evil.
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