PHILADELPHIA – At the end of a seven-game road trip, the Cincinnati Reds had a lot of things working against them.
Nick Castellanos and manager David Bell were ejected in the first inning after Castellanos disagreed with a called third strike. Jesse Winker, who missed the last two games, exited in the third inning with an injury. Starting pitcher Sonny Gray lasted only 4 2/3 innings.
It didn’t stop them from winning a series against the Philadelphia Phillies, earning a 7-4 victory at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday. The Reds finished their road trip with a 3-4 record, but they ended on a high note by taking two of three games from a playoff hopeful.
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There were contributions up and down the roster. Jonathan India scored three runs. Shogo Akiyama hit a two-run double. Tyler Stephenson hit a pinch-hit, two-run homer. The bullpen kept pitching out of jams.
“This has team win written all over it,” Gray said. “This took everyone on the roster. This took everyone outside of the roster. I mean, this took the entire traveling party to come away with this one.”
The Reds were clinging to a one-run lead before the bottom of the lineup provided some breathing room in the eighth inning. Tucker Barnhart was gifted an extra strike and made it count with an RBI double into the right-field corner. Stephenson followed his two-run homer, his fourth pinch-hit homer of the season and his third straight game with a homer.
Despite playing without a couple of All-Stars for most of the afternoon, the Reds could count on production from their rookies.
“We’ve been talking about it all year, this is awesome,” India said. “I’m so happy for (Stephenson). He doesn’t play every day. For him to step up like that, it’s hard to pinch-hit like that, and he does it a lot. He always steps up in big situations for us.”
Castellanos received a quick hook after he disagreed with a pair of called strikes in his first-inning strikeout. Castellanos turned to home-plate umpire Sean Barber after the final pitch was called a strike off the outside corner and he was ejected within five seconds.
Bell ran out of the dugout once Castellanos turned to face Barber, but he was too late to prevent an ejection. An animated Bell aired out his grievances for about 30 seconds before crew chief Alan Porter ejected him, too.
Winker felt his intercostal strain when he flew out to right field in the third inning, replaced by Aristides Aquino . He will be re-evaluated Monday in Cincinnati.
“We’ve been challenged a lot to this point,” Bell said. “I know I’ve said this a lot and I can’t say it enough: Just really proud of how our team responds to the challenges when it gets tough.”
India continues to spark the Reds lineup. He hammered a solo homer on the third pitch of the afternoon from Phillies starter Aaron Nola, pulling an elevated 94-mph fastball over the left-field fence.
It was India’s fourth career leadoff homer.
Gray and India hit back-to-back singles in the third inning. Akiyama, in the lineup after Castellanos’ ejection, saw four consecutive pitches off the outside corner. He lined the fourth one down the left-field line for a two-run double.
India scored from first base, beating a throw to the plate with a headfirst slide. India pumped his right fist a few times once the umpire ruled him safe.
“I mean in my mind the first two strikes that they called were obvious balls to me, but there was no way to know that for sure during the at-bat,” Akiyama said, according to interpreter Luke Shinoda. “I just got closer to the plate. The last ball I hit was a ball as well.”
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India added one more run in the fifth inning. He led off with a single and scored on a bases-loaded walk to Tyler Naquin. He leads the league in runs (54) since he was moved to the leadoff spot on June 5.
“We talk about our team responding, and it’s a team effort and many guys are responsible for that, but I also think Jonathan in some ways sets a tone,” Bell said. “He had a couple games where he didn’t get a hit, which is no big deal, but at the same time, to be able to bounce back from that and have a game like he did today, just continues to show us what he can do and how valuable and how important he is to our team.”
Gray permitted four hits and three runs in 4 2/3 innings, striking out two and walking three.
The Phillies loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning for the middle of their lineup. Bryce Harper had an eight-pitch battle with Gray, with most of the 28,544 fans rising to their feet when it became a full count and booing when Gray stepped off the rubber to run through another set of signs with the catcher.
Harper drew a walk after fouling four pitches and Didi Gregorius followed with a sacrifice fly, cutting Philadelphia’s deficit to one run. That ended Gray’s afternoon after 78 pitches, but reliever Lucas Sims stranded two runners by striking out Andrew McCutchen with a slider.
“This day clearly wasn’t about me,” Gray said. “It was about timely hitting. It was about our bullpen coming in and shutting the door and giving us what, 4 1/3 really quality innings. It was about everyone picking each other up. This was a complete team win.”
The Phillies had the tying run at the plate in the eighth inning after three two-out hits against Luis Cessa. Mychal Givens pitched out of it, inducing a flyout on his second pitch, and he earned a four-out save.
