Nathaniel Lowe doubles twice, drives in three as Reds topple Phillies

Andrew Abbott won his fourth straight start while Nathaniel Lowe doubled twice and drove in three runs as the visiting Cincinnati Reds turned back the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-4, on Wednesday in the rubber game of the series in Philadelphia.

Cincinnati earned a split of their six-game road trip while Philadelphia lost for just the sixth time in 22 games and suffered their first series loss under new manager Don Mattingly.

The Phillies took a 1-0 lead in the first without benefit of a hit. Trea Turner walked and stole second and made it to third on a throwing error from Reds catcher P.J. Higgins. After Adolis Garcia worked the second walk, Bryce Harper drove Turner home with a sacrifice fly.

The Reds answered with three runs in the second off Philadelphia starter and loser Aaron Nola (2-4). Sal Stewart opened the inning with a double and Spencer Steer singled. Lowe doubled home Stewart, before Will Benson's groundout to first made it 2-1.

Higgins followed with a single to left for a 3-1 lead. Higgins followed with another RBI single in the fourth for a 4-1 lead.

After Cincinnati made it 5-1 on a Dane Myers RBI double in the sixth, the Phillies knocked Abbott out of the game in the bottom of the inning on a one-out solo homer from Alec Bohm, his fifth of the season. Edmundo Sosa followed with a two-run homer off reliever Brock Burke to cut Cincinnati's lead to 5-4. The two homers extended Philadelphia's homer streak to 17 games.

Abbott (4-2), who earned his fourth straight win, held the Phillies to two runs (one earned) on three hits over 5 1/3 innings.

Brandon Marsh collected Philadelphia's first hit with one out in the fourth inning, a slow infield grounder that second baseman Spencer Steer couldn't handle. But on the next play, Steer leaped high in the air to his left and nabbed a soft liner from Edmundo Sosa and threw to first to easily double off Marsh to end the inning.

Lowe's two-run double in the seventh expanded Cincinnati's lead to 7-4 before Sal Stewart added a two-run homer in the ninth for the final margin.

--Field Level Media