But Tuesday night, the kids were all right.

Lopez and Machado each stroked a two-run triple to help the Reds to a 7-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies before a crowd of 15,364 at Great American Ball Park.

Jason LaRue tosses his mask aside as waits for gravity to do its thing. (Enquirer photo/JEFF SWINGER)

Machado, 23, is hitting .389 since his Sept. 3 recall. Lopez, 24, is hitting .304 over his last 12 games.

Both have much to prove as far as baseball, but athletically they are ready. Tuesday, they came up big in a game the Phillies - on wild-card life support - had to have.

The Reds have won four of five and clinched their first series win since they took two of three from St. Louis Aug. 24-26.

The Reds rocked their former teammate, Cory Lidle, for five runs in the first.

Lidle retired the first two routinely. He then walked Sean Casey, Adam Dunn and D'Angelo Jimenez to load the bases.

Wily Mo Pena scored Casey and Dunn with a single to right. Jason LaRue followed with a double to make 3-0. Machado, a former Phillie, hit one to the wall in right-center for a triple to make it a 5-0 game.

Lidle, who went to Phillies for three prospects Aug. 9, had been pitching well. The Phillies were 3-0 in last three starts. He had pitched back-to-back shutouts Aug. 29 and Sept. 4.

Acevedo gave up a run in the third but his downfall came in the fifth. Jimmy Rollins started the inning by reaching on first baseman Casey's error. Placido Polanco followed with a double.

Bobby Abreu got the Phillies within one with a towering shot to right for his 28th home run of the year. Acevedo got Thome, but Moeller High grad David Bell followed with line shot that just cleared the left field wall for his 16th homer.

The home run was the 30th Acevedo has allowed in 144 2/3 innings of work this year.

That tied it at 5-5 and ended Acevedo's night. Acevedo went 4 1/3 innings, allowing the five runs (four earned) on eight hits.

Lidle was gone after five. He allowed five runs on five hits. He walked four (after walking a total of two in the last four starts).

The Reds got the lead back in the sixth. Machado started things with a one-out single, his seventh hit in his last 13 at-bats. After Machado stole second, Jacob Cruz walked. The runners moved up on a wild pitch.

But the inning seemed to fizzle when Ryan Freel hit one right at shortstop Jimmy Rollins with infield draw in. Machado was running on contact and was out.

But Lopez stung one to left-center that went off the wall for a two-run triple to make it 7-5.

Thome got one of the runs back with his 41st, 437-foot shot that split the smokestacks in right-center, off Gabe White.

John Riedling, Joe Valentine and Danny Graves (40th save) shut out the Phillies the rest of the way.

Philadelphia	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Rollins ss	5	2	2	0	0	0	.283
Polanco 2b	4	1	2	0	0	1	.285
BAbreu rf	5	1	2	4	0	0	.295
Thome 1b	4	1	2	1	1	0	.277
DaBell 3b	5	1	1	1	0	0	.296
Michaels cf-lf	5	0	0	0	0	2	.259
Burrell lf	3	0	0	0	1	1	.259
2-Byrd pr-cf	0	0	0	0	0	0	.224
Lieberthal c	3	0	1	0	1	0	.260
Lidle p	2	0	0	0	0	2	.164
a-Howard ph	1	0	1	0	0	0	.455
1-Glanville pr	0	0	0	0	0	0	.207
Madson p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
TJones p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
c-Utley ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.271
Telemaco p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	38	6	11	6	3	6

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel rf	4	1	0	0	1	0	.277
FLopez 3b	4	0	1	2	0	0	.259
Casey 1b	3	1	1	0	1	1	.331
Dunn lf	3	1	1	0	1	1	.269
DJimenez 2b	3	1	0	0	1	1	.263
WPena cf	4	1	1	2	0	2	.256
LaRue c	4	1	2	1	0	1	.248
Machado ss	4	0	2	2	0	1	.389
JoAcevedo p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.048
RWagner p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
b-JaCruz ph	0	1	0	0	1	0	.224
GWhite p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Valentine p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
d-Vander Wal ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.120
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	32	7	8	7	5	9

Philadelphia	001	040	100	-6	11	0
Cincinnati	500	002	00x	-7	8	1

a-doubled for Lidle in the 6th. b-walked for Wagner in the 6th. c-flied out for Jones in the 8th. d-struck out for Valentine in the 8th.

1-ran for Howard in the 6th. 2-ran for Burrell in the 8th.

E-Casey (7). LOB-Philadelphia 9, Cincinnati 6. 2B-Polanco (17), BAbreu (39), Howard (2), Casey (42), LaRue 2 (21). 3B-FLopez (2), Machado (1). HR-Thome (41), off GWhite; DaBell (16), off JoAcevedo; BAbreu (28), off JoAcevedo. RBIs-BAbreu 4 (99), Thome (100), DaBell (71), FLopez 2 (25), WPena 2 (62), LaRue (48), Machado 2 (3). SB-Rollins (29), Machado (1).

Runners left in scoring position-Philadelphia 6 (Rollins, DaBell 3, Michaels 2); Cincinnati 4 (FLopez, Casey, WPena, JoAcevedo).

Runners moved up-DaBell.

DP-Cincinnati 1 (DJimenez and Machado).

Philadelphia	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Lidle	5	5	5	5	4	3	86	5.17
Madson L, 9-3	1	2	2	2	1	2	23	2.17
TJones	1	1	0	0	0	2	17	4.33
Telemaco	1	0	0	0	0	2	8	4.53

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JoAcevedo	4 1/3	8	5	4	1	3	88	6.28
RWagner W, 3-1	1 2/3	1	0	0	0	1	20	4.22
GWhite H, 8	2/3	1	1	1	0	1	13	5.91
Riedling H, 14	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	3	4.48
Valentine H, 3	1	0	0	0	2	1	24	6.75
Graves S, 40	1	1	0	0	0	0	26	3.97

HBP-by Graves (Polanco). WP-Madson.

Umpires-Home, Brian Runge; First, Gary Darling; Second, Bill Hohn; Third, Mark Carlson.

T-3:07. A-15,364 (42,271).

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