Phillies win on Joseph's hit in the ninth
The first baseman also homered in the victory over the Reds.
Maybe Phillies manager Pete Mackanin should have more postgame team meetings. A day after one of those sessions followed another disappointing loss the Phillies responded with a 4-3 win Saturday over the visiting Cincinnati Reds.
Tommy Joseph's RBI single up the middle in the ninth inning was the game-winner. It was Joseph's second game-ending hit in three games. The Phillies have had five walk-off wins, matching their total from last year.
"This was a good day. Maybe I should have a meeting every day," Mackanin quipped.
He got serious when asked if he saw more intensity after the meeting that followed Friday's 5-2 loss to the Reds.
"I would like to think I did," Mackanin said. "I was hoping I would."
While it's too early to say whether the Phillies have snapped out of their monthlong lethargy, they have won two of their last three games. For a team that is 17-30 and has won only six of the last 27, it's a start.
Aaron Altherr opened the ninth with a single up the middle against righthander Michael Lorenzen. With no outs, he went to second on a wild pitch that didn't get very far past catcher Tucker Barnhart.
"My instinct really took over," Altherr said. "I know it's a tough play for the catcher to try to get the ball and get up and make a perfect throw."
He then scored on Joseph's single.
Lorenzen "has some pretty good sink on the ball, and it was good to get it out there," Joseph said.
The Phillies bullpen pitched 32/3 innings of scoreless relief, with Hector Neris earning the win. Neris ended the ninth by striking out the always dangerous Joey Votto with Zack Cozart on first.
"I don't look at the name," Neris said of Votto. "I just look to make my pitch."
The bullpen has pitched 192/3 consecutive scoreless innings.
For the second straight game, Reds centerfielder Billy Hamilton reached base in the first and eventually scored the first run.
Hamilton opened the game with a bunt single, stole his 26th base, and scored on Cozart's two-run homer to left against righthander Jerad Eickhoff. Cozart is hitting .355 after going 4 for 4 with a walk.
The Phillies' Cesar Hernandez topped his leadoff counterpart by crushing a home run to right field to open the bottom of the first against 40-year-old Bronson Arroyo.
Hernandez missed his first game Friday because of groin tightness, but he vowed to be back Saturday and made good on his word. It was the fourth career leadoff home run for Hernandez.
"Cesar leading off with a home run was a good sign," Mackanin said.
Michael Saunders tied the score at 2-2 by leading off the second inning with his sixth home run and fifth this month, a 411-foot shot to right.
Joseph gave the Phillies a 3-2 lead with a fourth- inning homer to left, his eighth of the season and seventh this month.
Second baseman Scooter Gennett pulled the Reds even in the sixth on an RBI double that ended the day for Eickhoff. Still looking for his first win, Eickhoff allowed eight hits and three runs in 51/3 innings with four strikeouts and one walk.
Arroyo isn't one to test the limits of a radar gun. His fastball hovered in the mid-80s, but he did enough to keep his team in the game. In five innings he allowed five hits and three runs on the three solo homers, while striking out four and walking one.
Eickhoff and the bullpen kept the Phillies in the game until Joseph could provide the heroics.
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