PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Patrick Kivlehan had the game of his life in front of a large cheering section not far from home.
Kivlehan hit two solo homers, Adam Duvall hit a pair of two-run shots and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-4 on Sunday.
Scott Schebler also homered for the Reds and Scott Feldman (4-4) allowed four runs and eight hits in five innings.
Kivlehan grew up a fan of David Wright and the New York Mets only 90 minutes away in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. He said about 25 family and friends were in the stands to watch him get a rare start.
“It was a one of those days I’ll remember forever,” Kivlehan said. “It was definitely a special weekend.”
Kivlehan had two homers in 65 career at-bats entering the game.
He connected off Zach Eflin in the fourth, and then went deep against Jeanmar Gomez in the ninth.
“I couldn’t have been happier for him,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “He’s a good player. He needed to start here in front of family.”
The Reds took two of three to win a series in Philadelphia for the first time since August 2006.
Andrew Knapp hit a three-run homer for the struggling Phillies, who have lost nine consecutive series. They’re 6-22 in that span.
Eflin (0-3) was roughed up again and was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after the game. He allowed seven runs and nine hits, including four homers, in five innings.
“He needs to work on a few things, keeping the ball down, work on his secondary stuff,” Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. “He just needs to go down there and get back to where he was because we’ve all seen him really good.”
Duvall hit a two-run shot to deep left-center in the third to tie it at 4. After Kivlehan’s homer in the fourth gave the Reds a 5-4 lead, Duvall drove another one out to left-center to make it 7-4.
“He’s in a really good cycle,” Price said of Duvall. “The way he goes about his business, his cycles are going to be longer in duration than his struggles.”
Knapp’s drive to straightaway center gave the Phillies a 3-2 lead in the second and Eflin added an RBI single.
Duvall had an RBI single in the first and Schebler hit one out in the second.
Reds 2B Jose Peraza extended his career-high hitting streak to 13 games. … Five homers were a season high for the Reds. … Schebler leads the Reds with 15 homers, Duvall has 13, Joey Votto has 12 and Eugenio Suarez has 10. … Philadelphia’s bullpen had a scoreless streak of 22 2/3 innings before Kivlehan homered in the ninth. … The last time the Phillies lost more than nine straight series was 1997 when they dropped 10 in a row.
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