PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Chase Utley and Jayson Werth scored key runs while Cincinnati was making two errors on one play Friday, pushing Philadelphia to a 7-4 playoff win over the Reds.
Capitalizing on four errors that made five of their runs unearned, the Phillies took a 2-0 advantage in the National league Division Series. Philadelphia can earn a trip to the NLCS with a win when the series resumes in Cincinnati Sunday.
Cincinnati took a 4-0 lead, thanks in part to solo homers from Brandon Phillips and Jay Bruce, but then collapsed in the field to allow a Philadelphia comeback. Phillips committed a fielding error at second base in the fifth that led to two Philadelphia runs and Shane Victorino drew a bases-loaded walk in the sixth to bring the Phillies within one.
Cincinnati then completely fell apart in the seventh on one disastrous series of events.
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Philadelphia had runners on first and second with one away in the seventh when Jimmy Rollins hit an apparent routine fly ball to right that Bruce seemed to lose in the lights. Bruce put his glove up to catch the ball, but it sailed past his head.
Center fielder Drew Stubbs chased it down and fired it back to the infield, but Phillips dropped it at second base and the ball trickled a few feet away. Utley raced in with the tying run, ruled to have scored on Bruce's mistake, and Werth was right behind with the go-ahead tally, deemed to have come in on the bobble by Phillips.
All of that made a winner out of Jose Contreras, who worked a scoreless inning of relief as the fourth Philadelphia pitcher. Brad Lidge earned the 17th playoff save of his career. Aroldis Chapman was on the mound for Cincinnati in the seventh and took the loss.
