Chase Burns strikes out nine, Phillies lose to the Reds 4-1 in South Philly

The Phillies lost 4-1 to the Reds on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park on the hottest day of the year so far in South Philadelphia.

Chase Burns, the second overall pick from the 2024 Draft, went six innings and made the Phillies’ offense look completely overmatched. Nine strikeouts. Three hits allowed. Zero walks. A fastball averaging 98.4 mph that sits in the top five percent of the league. A slider that generated a 64 percent whiff rate.

At one point he struck out five consecutive Phillies.

Some nights the opposing pitcher is just better than your lineup. Tuesday was one of those nights. Burns got Phillies hitters to swing and miss 43 percent of the time, which is the 13th-highest single-game mark by a starting pitcher this season in an outing of six-plus innings.

Tip your cap and move on.

Luzardo Did His Job

Luzardo keeps drawing the toughest matchups on the schedule. Ranger Suarez in Boston last Thursday. Burns on Tuesday. Two elite arms in the span of five days and Luzardo has competed in both outings.

Six innings, two runs, five hits, one walk, five strikeouts on 95 pitches. That’s a quality start from the Phillies’ $135 million lefty. The offense just couldn’t give him anything to work with.

The fourth inning could have been a disaster. De La Cruz tripled after the ball deflected off Crawford’s glove in center. A single and a walk loaded the bases with nobody out. Classic Luzardo danger zone. The kind of inning that has blown up on him multiple times this season.

Then the wind saved him. Dane Myers hit a deep fly to right that hugged the foul line and stayed in the park. Garcia made the catch for a sacrifice fly. Bleday drove a Luzardo fastball 101.9 mph and 380 feet to center but the wind kept it in the yard.

Crawford caught it for another sacrifice fly. Two runs scored on outs instead of hits. Luzardo struck out the next batter to end the inning. Given his struggles with runners on base this season, escaping that inning with only two runs allowed on sacrifice flies was a win within the loss.

Trea Turner Hit One 409 Feet

Trea Turner blasted his fifth homer of the season in the third inning. A 104.2 mph pull-side shot that traveled 409 feet off a Burns slider that missed over the middle of the plate. Turner’s hitting streak is now six games and he’s starting to find it in the back end of May.

Turned on that one ‼️ pic.twitter.com/FqFb7eWACp

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) May 19, 2026

Turner entered the night with a .236 average and a career-low pull percentage. He’s been going the other way at a career-high rate this season, which has been productive but the Phillies need the pull-side power to show up too.

Tuesday’s homer was exactly the kind of damage they’ve been waiting to see. When Turner is driving the ball to all fields with authority, the lineup is significantly more dangerous from the one hole.

The Bullpen Gave It Away

The deficit was 2-1 heading into the seventh. Luzardo had kept the Phillies in the game. One big inning from the offense and the game is tied.

Instead, Tanner Banks came in and gave up two runs to push it to 4-1. That’s the kind of bullpen inning that turns a competitive loss into a blowout loss and takes the air out of any potential rally.

Banks has had some good moments this season but Tuesday wasn’t one of them.

Bohm and Stott Keep Hitting

The one positive from the offensive side was Bohm and Stott combining for three of the Phillies’ four hits. Bohm extended his hitting streak to 10 games.

Since the two-day reset Mattingly gave him, Bohm has been a different hitter and the consistency over the last two weeks has been encouraging. Stott continues to produce as an everyday player. Both guys are making a case that the bottom half of the lineup can be productive when they’re locked in.

Phillies Need An Aaron Nola Bounce-Back Wednesday

The Phillies go for the series win Wednesday against Cincinnati lefty Andrew Abbott, who has a 4.35 ERA in four career starts against the Phillies.

Aaron Nola takes the mound and he desperately needs a good outing. Three starts this season where he’s allowed five or more earned runs. Seven of nine starts where he’s allowed at least three.

His ERA is approaching 6.00 and the lefty-hitting problem hasn’t gone away.

The Phillies are 25-24. Still over .500. Still 16-5 under Mattingly. Tuesday was a loss to a pitcher who was simply dominant. It happens. The mark of this team under Mattingly has been the ability to bounce back after a tough loss and take the series the next day. Wednesday is the test.

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