To Philadelphia For the Playoffs With 4-3 Loss

The Reds are going to play the Philadelphia Phillies in the opening round of the playoffs unless San Diego or San Francisco beats out Atlanta for the wild card.

Atlanta lost tonight so their lead over San Diego is a game and a half over San Diego.  San Diego must sweep and the Braves must get swept by the Phillies for that to happen.

The Reds had a chance to edge San Francisco for the second best record in the National League but needed to sweep Milwaukee while San Diego sweeps the Giants.  San Diego leads 5-0 in the fourth inning as of this writing (11:35 pm).

Travis Wood did not allow a hit for five innings but Rickie Weeks led off th sixth with his 29th home run.  With one out in the seventh Casey McGhee doubled and Lorenzo Cain singled him to third.  Wood was replaced by Logan Ondrusek, who allowed a pinch hit single to Craig Counsell and a sacrifice fly to Jonathan Lucroy to tie the game.

The Reds had few opportunities with rookie Mark Rogers.  Rogers was taken by Milwaukee one pick ahead of Homer Bailey.  The Brewers narrowed their choices to those two in the 2004 draft, deciding on Rogers.

Rogers had a good season in Double AA.  This was his second start and fourth appearance in September.  He started his career with nine hitless innings including tonight.

 The Reds scored a run without a hit in the first inning on Joey Votto's sacrifice fly.  Drew Stubbs walked, stole second and advanced to third after Brandon Phillips grounded out.  The Reds scored one in the fifth on a suicide squeeze play by Paul Janish and in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Phillips.

The game went into the 11th.  Sam LeCure gave up a single to Corey Hart and walked Ryan Braun.  He was relieved by Jordan Smith, who allowed a single to McGhee.  It was a potential double play but Phillips couldn't come up with it.  It was ruled an error but changed to a hit because Phillips was screened by the umpire on the play.