The Reds lost to the Philadelphia Phillies yesterday by a score of 8-4.

Elizardo Ramirez earned himself the loss by allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits and three walks through six plus innings. He struck out seven.

Chris Hammond allowed zero runs on one hit in the seventh. Matt Belise allowed one run (earned) on one hit through one-third. Brian “Ram” Shackelford allowed four runs (all earned) on two hits and three walks through one inning. Rick White gave up zero runs on one hit through the final two-thirds.

The buzz about this game has been that the bullpen let down Ramirez, but I'm still going to indict the offense. The Lizard allowed three runs through six and the offense only scored four. The bullpen would have had to have kept the Phillies scoreless through the final three innings to win this one. A bullpen doesn't have to be bad to allow more than one run to the Phillies over three innings.

Austin Kearns and Edwin Encarnación each hit a solo shot in the bottom of the sixth to provide the sum total of the offense through eight innings. In the ninth, Brandon Phillips walked, Javier Valentín flied out, Scott Hatteberg walked, and Quinton McCracken reached on a fielding error to load up the bases. Felipe Lopez even walked in a run to keep the bases loaded for Ken Griffey, Jr.

Alas, The Kid did not reprise his walk-off performance of the day before. Admittedly, that would have taken a 6-run home run, but I think we all would have been happy with a grand slam. Instead, he grounded out, bringing in Hatteberg. When Kearns struck out swinging, the quasi-rally was over as was the game.

The loss brings the Reds' record to 23-13. They try to avoid losing the series tonight by pitting Dave Williams, proud owner of a 2-2 record, 7.85 ERA against Jon Lieber, equally proud owner of a 2-4 record, 6.60 ERA. Game time 6:10 p.m.