PHILADELPHIA _ Phillies right-hander Zach Eflin will surely be glad to flip the calendar. Eflin, like his team, has had a rough month of May that continued Sunday with an 8-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Citizens Bank Park.
The Reds, off to a fairly surprising 24-25 start, hit five home runs, including two each by Adam Duvall and Patrick Kivlehan.
The loss puts the Phillies at 6-19 this month. Eflin was roughed up for seven runs on nine hits (including four home runs) in five innings. He has allowed 28 earned runs and 48 hits in his five May starts totaling 28 innings.
His April ERA was 1.89. In May it was 9.00. The Phillies optioned Eflin to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after the game.
The Phillies (17-31) must play three more May games beginning Monday in Miami, but the month can't end soon enough for them.
They are 6-22 in their last 28 games and have lost nine consecutive series after the Reds took two of three games this weekend. It was the Reds' first series win at Citizens Bank Park since August 2006. They were 0-9-1 in series played in Philadelphia before this weekend.
Cincinnati scored in the first inning for the third game this series on an RBI single by Duvall, who obviously was just be getting warmed up. Scott Schebler made it 2-0 in the second with his 15th homer of the season on a 1-0 fastball that he crushed to center field.
Andrew Knapp hit a three-run home run to center field to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead in the second inning. Knapp, who hit a 77-mph curveball off right-hander Scott Feldman, drove in Tommy Joseph and Michael Saunders, who both singled.
Freddy Galvis then hit an opposite-field double to left field and scored on a single by Eflin for his first career RBI.
Duvall tied the score with a two-run blast to left off Eflin's 94-mph, four-seem fastball in the third.
The Reds took a 5-4 lead when Kivlehan led off the fourth with a homer to center. Duvall's two-run homer, his 13th, made it 7-4 in the fifth.
The Reds have four players who have hit double-figure home-run totals. The Phillies don't have any.
Kivlehan, who entered the game with one home run, hit a solo shot to left field in the ninth off Jeanmar Gomez.
