Phillies Show Dominance By Sweeping Reds 6-4

The Phillies put together five hits and a walk off Mike Leake in the second inning and Ryan Howard hit his 30th home run to complete the four-game sweep of the Reds.

The three-run second was too much for the Reds to overcome even though they scored off Philadelphia pitching for the first time in 21 innings in the third.

"Leake threw the ball pretty good," Dusty Baker said. "They got a some bloops and infield hits."

Vance Worley struck out seven in six innings and the Philadelphia Phillies completed an historic four-game sweep in Cincinnati with a 6-4 win on Thursday.

Worley allowed a leadoff double to Brandon Phillips in the third. Joey Votto delivered Phillips with a deep fly to center to break a string of 21 scoreless innings by Phillie pitchers.

The Phillies staff led by Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee shutout the Reds Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hunter Pence doubled one out into the second innings. Leake walked Raul Ibanez. Brian Schneider, Worley and Shane Victorino hit singles in succesion.

"I was falling behind.  I wasn't attacking like I did the rest of the game," Leake said. "The only one that hit the ball hard was Pence.  After that, I tried to keep the ball down, out of the hitting zone."

Michael Martinez added a two-run homer as the Phillies (87-46) moved 41 games over .500 for the first time since Aug. 26, 1976, when they improved to 83-42 with a win at Cincinnati.

The home run off Jared Burton, who was making his first appearance of the year, extended Philadelphia's lead to 6-1.

Chris Heisey, who was activated from the disabled list before the game, hit a three-run, pinch hit home run off Worley to end the hurler's afternoon.

 "What really hurt was the home run by Martinez," Baker said.  "Heisey hit that big home run to make it close. We missed Heisey, big time."

Philadelphia, which had never swept a four-game series in Cincinnati, won seven of eight games against the Reds this season to improve to 30-12 against them over the last six seasons.

"There is a big time small margin for error against them," Baker said. "If you don't take advantage of chances which are rare, you don't have much of a chance. They rarely help you out with a walk.  They pound the strike zone and throw quality strikes."

Howard hit a solo shot to left-center on a 3-1 pitch from Mike Leake in the sixth, giving Philadelphia a 4-1 lead and extending his streak of consecutive seasons with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs to six. Martinez went deep in the seventh, hitting a drive off Jared Burton into the fourth row of right-field seats.

Worley (10-1) allowed four runs and eight hits with one walk. The first six of his Ks came on called third strikes.

The Phillies improved to 15-2 in Worley's 17 starts this season and have won each of his last 13, their longest streak since they won a club-record 15 consecutive Steve Carlton starts in 1972.