By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos from today's game

PHILADELPHIA - It was stunning how quickly it turned.

The Reds were dancing along Thursday with a four-run lead, and the next thing you know, they were walking off the field with their heads down - 6-4 losers to the Philadelphia Phillies before a crowd of 37,512 at Citizens Bank Park in the second and final game of the rain-shorted series here.

"It happened pretty fast," first baseman Sean Casey said. "One minute we're up. The next we're down. They got some breaks and they took advantage of them."

Ryan Wagner was the loser. He served up a three-run home run to Mike Lieberthal in the eighth on a 2-1 fastball.

"As far as I know, it was a good pitch," Wagner said. "In that situation, I'm going to make him beat me, which he did."

Things had already started to unravel for the Reds before Lieberthal's homer.

The inning started with left-hander Phil Norton on the mound. Placido Polanco led off with a line drive that went off shortstop Ray Olmedo's glove.

"He hit it hard," Olmedo said. "It was (sinking)."

Olmedo still had a play, but his throw short-hopped Casey at first.

"That was a big play," Reds manager Dave Miley said. "We had a chance to get him."

Norton then walked Bobby Abreu, but got Jim Thome to ground to Casey on a 3-2 pitch. The Reds almost turned a 3-6-1 double play on Thome's ball, but the momentum had already shifted toward Philadelphia.

Wagner came in to face Pat Burrell, who took a pair of 94 mph fastballs for strikes. Wagner tried to put him away with a slider.

"I don't even know how he got the bat on the ball," Wagner said.

But Burrell did, dropping a soft liner into right to make it a 4-3 game.

Wagner violated the first rule of Reds pitching this year - throw strikes - by falling behind Lieberthal 2-1, who was hitting .074.

"You've got to try to stay ahead in the count, instead of getting behind," Miley said.

Lieberthal's shot was a no-doubter to left.

Before the eighth, the bullpen had not surrendered a run since Danny Graves gave up a meaningless solo home run to Derrek Lee of the Chicago Cubs in the ninth inning of the second game of the year.

"You're not going to go the whole year with five or six guys in the bullpen with 0.00 ERAs," Miley said.

Still, this was a tough loss to take. The Reds were up 4-0 in the seventh, and starter Jose Acevedo was cruising, having retired 13 of the last 14 batters.

Acevedo's trouble began when Marlon Byrd lined one through the middle. Acevedo reached up to protect himself, and the ball deflected off the baby finger and ring finger of his right hand.

"I could feel my fingers," he said. "I lost command a little bit."

Acevedo took a few warm-up pitches, but quickly fell behind David Bell 3-0. He threw a strike, then Bell hit one out to left to make it a 4-2 game.

Acevedo had only one mildly difficult inning before the seventh, allowing the Phillies to load the bases with two outs in the second inning. But Acevedo struck out pitcher Vicente Padilla to avoid damage.

The Reds had already taken a 1-0 lead, when catcher Jason LaRue's double scored Casey in the second inning.

The Reds added three in the fourth. Austin Kearns led off with a walk. Casey followed with his second hit of the game. They moved to second and third on Adam Dunn's check-swing groundout to second.

The Phillies walked LaRue to get to utility man Juan Castro. The move looked like a safe bet. Castro came to the plate hitting .125, and in the second inning, he had struck out on an up-and-in pitch with runners at second and third and one out.

This time, Castro came through. He lined one into right-center that went to the wall. Kearns and Casey scored easily. LaRue was thrown out at the plate. Casto scored on a wild pitch.

The Reds would only send one batter over the minimum to the plate the rest of the way.

Still, even after Bell's home run, the Reds had to feel good about their chances. The bullpen, after all, came into the game with a 0.44 ERA, best in the majors.

"We weren't able to close it out," Miley said. "It was one of those days."

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
DJimenez 2b	4	0	1	0	0	1	.310
Freel 3b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.276
Olmedo ss	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Griffey Jr. cf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.269
Kearns rf	2	1	0	0	2	1	.167
Casey 1b	4	2	2	0	0	0	.400
Dunn lf	3	0	0	0	1	2	.333
LaRue c	3	0	2	1	1	1	.150
JCastro ss-3b	3	1	1	2	0	2	.167
e-Larkin ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.143
JoAcevedo p	2	0	1	0	1	1	.200
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
RWagner p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	30	4	7	3	5	10

Philadelphia	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Rollins ss	4	0	0	0	1	0	.138
Polanco 2b	5	1	2	0	0	0	.303
BAbreu rf	2	0	0	0	2	2	.111
Thome 1b	4	1	1	0	0	1	.290
Burrell lf	4	1	1	1	0	3	.300
Lieberthal c	4	1	1	3	0	1	.107
Byrd cf	3	1	2	0	1	0	.250
DaBell 3b	3	1	1	2	1	0	.292
Padilla p	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
a-Glanville ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.200
RHernandez p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
b-Ledee ph	0	0	0	0	0	0	.200
c-Wooten ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.500
Cormier p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
d-Michaels ph	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000
BWagner p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	32	6	8	6	6	8

Cincinnati	010	300	000	-4	7	0
Philadelphia	000	000	24x	-6	8	0

a-grounded out for Padilla in the 5th. b-announced for R.Hernandez in the 7th. c-grounded out for Ledee in the 7th. d-walked for Cormier in the 8th. e-grounded into double play for Castro in the 9th.

LOB-Cincinnati 4, Philadelphia 8. 2B-LaRue (1), JCastro (1). HR-Lieberthal (2), off RWagner; DaBell (1), off JoAcevedo. RBIs-LaRue (1), JCastro 2 (2), Burrell (6), Lieberthal 3 (4), DaBell 2 (3). GIDP-DJimenez, Freel, Larkin.

Runners left in scoring position-Cincinnati 2 (JoAcevedo 2); Philadelphia 4 (Polanco 2, Padilla 2).

Runners moved up-Dunn, DaBell.

DP-Philadelphia 3 (Rollins, Polanco and Thome), (Rollins, Polanco and Thome), (Polanco, Rollins and Thome).

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JoAcevedo	6 1/3	4	2	2	3	8	105	3.65
PNorton H, 3	1	1	2	2	1	0	19	4.50
RWagner L, 0-1 BS, 1	1/3	3	2	2	2	0	23	5.40
Riedling	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.00

Philadelphia	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Padilla	5	5	4	4	4	6	94	4.91
RHernandez	2	1	0	0	0	3	23	6.35
Cormier W, 2-2	1	0	0	0	1	0	17	5.40
BWagner S, 2	1	1	0	0	0	1	12	0.00

Inherited runners-scored-RWagner 2-2, Riedling 3-0.

IBB-off Padilla (LaRue) 1, off JoAcevedo (DaBell) 1. WP-JoAcevedo, Padilla.

Umpires-Home, Angel Hernandez; First, Mike Everitt; Second, Mark Wegner; Third, Jerry Crawford.

T-2:55. A-37,512 (43,500).