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The Phillies’ last five games before the All-Star break were against the team one spot ahead of them in the standings: the Cincinnati Reds. Si Johnson started in the first day’s game. Johnson got shelled in the first, giving up runs on extra base hits by Frankie Kelleher, Frank McCormick, and Eddie Miller to make it 4-0. Ron Northey, getting a start in left, doubled home Murtaugh, then scored on Wells’s single to cut the lead in half. The next batter, Buck Leonard, put one over the center field fence to tie the game. The Reds went up 5-4 in the fifth, and that was it for Johnson. That didn’t stop the bleeding, nor did it help the Phillies score. They went down to defeat, 9-4.

The next day was a doubleheader, with Paige taking the first game. This time, the Phillies got the jump on scoring, with Murtaugh coming home when a pickoff throw went wild. Leonard mashed his fourteenth home run of the season to right field in the third to make it 3-0. Two innings later, Buck sent one the other way for number 15 and a 5-0 lead. The Reds got two in the seventh, but Paige knocked one in himself in the eighth to take a 7-2 lead. It ended up 9-2, as the Phillies won easily.

Mathis took the hill in the nightcap, and pitched out of trouble in the first. In the second, the Phillies jumped all over Reds starter Johnny Vander Meer, scoring seven runs on eight hits while sending twelve men to the plate. Vander Meer had entered the game with a 1.38 ERA, but was bounced in the second inning this time. Mathis held the lead, but labored. He struck out ten, but also gave up twelve hits, which led to three runs before Beck relieved him in the eighth. Boom-Boom defied his nickname and held the lead for a 7-3 win and a sweep of the doubleheader.

Passeau was on the mound the next day, hoping to rebound from his last appearance. He started out strong, but so did the Reds’ 14-win pitcher, Bucky Walters. When rain briefly delayed the game in the third, it was still 0-0. While Passeau was holding the Reds to just one hit over the first six innings, Leonard broke the tie with a home run to right center to make it 1-0. The Reds put two on with nobody out in the seventh, but Passeau worked out of it to preserve his shutout. Gee Walker finally got to him in the eighth and tied the game with a home run. The game stayed 1-1 through nine. Wells, who was slumping, looked as though he would make the final out in the tenth with a fly ball to right, but Walker misplayed it into a two-base error. Leonard did not let the opportunity pass, and singled to left to score Wells and walk-off with the 2-1 win.

The All-Star rosters were announced before the final doubleheader before the break. Although many saw Paige’s exclusion as a snub, the Phillies could not be altogether displeased with the roster, which included Gibson, Leonard, Wells, Benson, Brown, and Passeau. Not a bad showing, and real proof that the rest of the league recognized the talent of these players.

Paige started the early game on July 11, and Sam Jethroe got a start at second, with Murtaugh moving to shortstop. Two doubles to lead off the first gave the Reds their first run, but Paige retired the side after that. It turned into another pitchers’ duel. Kelleher knocked in one more to make it 2-0 Reds in the sixth and the Reds picked up three more that inning to take a five-run lead. The Phillies could not get anything going off of Elmer Riddle, and dropped game one 5-0.

Verdell Mathis took the second game against Cincinnati’s Luke Hamlin. Frankie Kelleher got the Red on the board first with a solo home run in the fourth. Willard Brown doubled and scored in the bottom of the inning to tie it up again. The Reds went up 2-1 in the sixth, but Estalella knocked in Brown in the bottom of the inning to draw even once again. Estalella tripled off the wall in the eighth to score Brown from second, giving the Phillies a 3-2 lead, and got one more when he scored on Benson’s single. Mathis came back out to pitch the ninth and put two men on with two outs after surrendering a run. Si Johnson relieved him and walked two to force in a run, tying the game at 4. The Phillies put a man on third in the ninth, but stranded him there and went to extra innings. Beck gave up a triple off the wall to Eric Tipton in the top of the 13th, and he scored on a ground out. In their half of the inning, Estalella scored on a sac fly from Mickey Livingston, and they continued to play into the 14th. On and on it went. Cy Blanton let the Reds load the bases in the 19th but wiggled out of it with the score still tied 5-5. The game, now the second-longest in Phillies history, stretched into the 20th, when Blanton gave up a bases loaded single to make it 6-5. Tiant, still nagged by a forearm injury, relieved him and surrendered two more before retiring the side. The Phillies could stave off defeat no longer and lost 8-5 in twenty innings. The game took six hours which, on top of the two and a half hours in the first game, gave the fans their money’s worth that day.