Phillies at Reds
Bryce Harper thoroughly has enjoyed the last three weeks of his life, with unmitigated success on the field and a newborn child off. Harper looks to extend both the Philadelphia Phillies' winning streak and his hitting streak on Wednesday when they play the third contest of a four-game series against the host Cincinnati Reds.
Harper hit safely in his 11th consecutive contest on Tuesday with a run-scoring single in the fifth inning of Philadelphia's 6-2 victory, allowing him to reach the 100-RBI plateau for the second season in a row. The 26-year-old, who has 28 RBIs in his last 25 games, became the first Phillie since Ryan Howard (2011) to reach 30 homers and 100 RBIs and first outfielder on the team to accomplish the feat since Pat Burrell (2005). While Philadelphia has won three in a row to remain 2 1/2 games behind the Chicago Cubs for the second wild card in the National League, Cincinnati has lost six of seven to quicken its pace toward the basement of the NL Central. Rookie Aristides Aquino followed up his solo homer in the 7-1 loss in the series opener with a run-scoring single on Tuesday to boost his RBI total to 35 in 33 games.
TV: 6:40 p.m. ET, NBCS Philadelphia, FS Ohio (Cincinnati)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Phillies RH Aaron Nola (12-4, 3.45 ERA) at Reds RH Trevor Bauer (10-12, 4.53)
The familiar refrain of a lack of run support and a leaky bullpen was once again heard by Nola, who received a no-decision after his one-run, four-hit performance against the New York Mets on Friday turned into an 11-5 loss by Philadelphia. The 26-year-old also walked away without a decision in his last encounter with Cincinnati on June 9 after allowing three runs on four hits in 6 2/3 innings. Joey Votto (0-for-13) and Eugenio Suarez (2-for-12) have struggled considerably versus Nola, who sports a 2-1 mark with a 2.86 ERA and 0.89 WHP in five career starts against the Reds.
Bauer allowed six runs on four innings of a 10-6 loss at St. Louis on Saturday to see his losing streak extend to four games and his ERA balloon to 8.40 in six starts since being acquired from Cleveland at the trade deadline. The 28-year-old was taken deep twice to lift his home run total to six in his last five trips to the mound. "I don't know," Bauer said. "That's the toughest part. If there's something that you can point to and try to fix at least you have hope to fix it. Right now we're just trying to figure out what it is going on. I've had the worst month of my career."
WALK-OFFS
1. Philadelphia IF/OF Scott Kingery has homered in back-to-back contests to boost his RBI total to six during his four-game hitting streak.
2. Cincinnati 2B Freddy Galvis is mired in a 1-for-31 slump in his last nine contests.
3. Phillies LF Corey Dickerson has 19 hits and 16 RBIs in his last 12 games.