Reds' victory over Phillies a walk in park

CINCINNATI - Cliff Lee hadn't walked a batter in a span of 45 innings and 169 batters faced, dating back to last September, when Jay Bruce worked a walked to load the bases in the seventh inning of Monday night's game in Cincinnati.

If you take it back further to July 31 of last year, Lee had issued only four walks in his last 114 1/3 innings and 452 batters faced before Bruce.

Of course, if you asked Charlie Manuel following Monday's game, Lee didn't walk Bruce, either.

"Bruce went around," Manuel said of the pivotal at-bat. "That was an out. He definitely went out. I don't care. What the hell? I can tell you. Wasn't even close. He swung. He swung at the ball."

Manuel was referring to a check swing in a 10-pitch at-bat that began with Bruce buried in an 0-2 count and ended with him standing on first base. Lee's walk streak ended and soon, his string of shutout innings would, too.

Lee unleashed a wild pitch later in the inning as the Red scored twice, and, despite a two-out, two-run pinch-hit home run in the eighth from Chase Utley to tie it, Cincinnati scored two more in the bottom half of the inning to post a 4-2 victory over the Phillies.

"That's baseball, that happens," Lee said of the close calls, minimal run support and small margin for error. "You have to give [Reds pitcher Bronson] Arroyo credit. He kept flipping those breaking balls in there for strikes all day. He pitched well."

While Arroyo was sharp, if the Reds were going to beat the Phillies, they were going to have to beat both Lee and Ben Revere.

Both the starting pitcher and centerfielder redefined the word "stingy" at Great American Ball Park.

Lee took a shutout into the seventh and, with his walk streak intact, wasn't giving away any free passes, either.

Revere was equally ungenerous.

Although Lee's control was pinpoint - he threw 70 of his 96 pitches for strikes - he was allowing balls to travel far and deep into the outfield where, thankfully for his sake, Revere was able to run. Revere made six putouts in the games first four innings, including a full-extension, diving catch that would make Mike Trout, Torii Hunter and Jim Edmonds blush.

"One of the best catches I've seen in a long time," Manuel said.

"We were sitting there in the 'pen, he went flying and disappeared," Jeremy Horst said of the obstructed view in the bullpen, "and all of a sudden everyone was yelling."

Revere figured he had it the whole time, right?

"Not exactly," Revere said with a smile. "I thought it was going to be over my head and was about to give up, but in the back of my mind I just thought I should go for it."

Pitching and defense kept the Phillies in another tight battle. But their offensive struggles carried over from the weekend in Miami.

The Phils have scored seven runs in their last four games. Arroyo, who came into the game with a 6.55 ERA against the Phillies in his career, matched Lee with zeros and didn't yield a run until Utley's blast.

"Until Utley's homer, we didn't do nothing very exciting," Manuel said. "He kind of shut us down."

The Reds finally got to Lee in the seventh, when Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips led off with hits and scored the game's first two runs on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly, respectively. Although Utley did his best Laynce Nix impersonation a half-inning later, providing the Phils with their second late-inning pinch-hit home run in as many nights, Manuel's bullpen faltered in the bottom of the eighth.

Or maybe it was just the Reds finally getting rewarded after suffering through the early-game stinginess. Horst was called on to take over for Lee in the eighth and gave up an infield single and a bloop double to two of the first three batters he faced.

"A swinging bat is a dangerous bat," said Horst, who was the only reliever warming up when Utley homered. "Tough plays, but that's baseball."

"It wasn't like Horst did bad - it was a circumstance of bad luck," Manuel said. "It was a case of good things happening for [the Reds]."

After Horst intentionally walked Votto, Manuel called for veteran setup man Mike Adams to face Phillips.

Buried in a 1-2 count, Phillips ripped a slider and sneaked it by Freddy Galvis at second base to bring in two runs. Game over.

Well, not quite. But with Aroldis Chapman warming up in the pen, recording the final three outs was a mere formality.

After Galvis lined out to left, Chapman struck out Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard to end the game.

Chapman's final pitch registered at 100-mph.

"It was a good game," Manuel said. "It didn't end right, though."

Ben Revere wore the message "Pray for Boston" on his glove on Monday night. After the pregame stretch, he returned to the clubhouse and put a white piece of tape with the message written in black ink on the glove. "When I went out there, I came back and put it on, just thinking about all those people out there," Revere said. "All the families. Something tragic like that, anywhere in the world, I'm always praying and thinking about that."

Blog: ph.ly/HighCheese