So it was a bit surprising when Atlanta manager Brian Snitker summoned left-hander Dylan Dodd from the bullpen in the seventh inning and Reds manager Tito Francona told Benson, “Go get ‘em.”
The Reds led by one run with two outs and a runner on first. And Benson homered.
The two-run rip to left field, the opposite way, turned out to be the game-changer in Cincinnati’s 3-2 win.
Benson, playing flashy center field while TJ Friedl is on paternity leave, also stuck his hand in the middle of scoring the Reds other run that gave them a 1-0 lead in the sixth.
Benson led the sixth against Braves starter Bryce Elder and singled. Then he stole second base. Then he scored on Matt McLain’s two-out single.
Benson broke into a broad smile when he was asked in a post-game interview about the homer against a left-handed pitcher.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“I’m grateful for the opportunity,” he told reporters after the game. “Any chance I get against a lefty is a learning opportunity. I went into it with the right mindset, let’s get to it. And I put a good swing on it.”
In his previous appearance, Reds starter Brady Singer held Tampa Bay to one run and three hits over seven innings with one walk and eight strikeouts.
In his previous outing, Atlanta starter Bryce Elder gave up eight runs against the Texas Rangers in 2 2/3 innings. And in his last seven starts, his earned run average was in double digits, above 10.
So this figured to be a huge mismatch in Cincinnati’s favor, right?
Wrong.
Elder was in firm control. For six innings, the Reds had only two hits, both by leadoff hitter Gavin Lux. And no Cincinnati runner touched second base.
Then the Benson-McLain combination produced a run in the sixth for the 1-0 lead. Elder walked Spencer Steer to open the seventh, but struck out Jake Fraley and Jose Trevino flied to left.
There were two outs and a runner on first, Elder still in control and had thrown only 83 pitches. But Braves manager Brian Snitcker made the fatal decision to bring in the lefty, Dodd, to face Benson.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Bang.
During the post-game interview, the first thing Benson talked about was not his single, not his stolen base, not his home run. He talked about Singer.
And why not?
“Excellent and a shoutout to Brady,” he said. “He had an excellent start to put us in position to win.”
Excellent indeed.
Brady covered six shutout innings and gave up just four hits, one walk and struck out a season-best 10. Over his last two starts he has struck out 18.
“I told Chase Burns I could do it, too,” he said with a laugh about his strikeouts.
Against Tampa Bay, his out pitch was his fastball. On Friday, he mixed a hard slider and a diving sinker to mesmerize the Braves with 97 pitches before Francona decided it was enough.
“My slider was pretty good and I had the sweeper going as well,” he said after lifting his record to 9-8, “I felt my pitches had a lot of movement.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
After the two teams combined for 23 runs in Thursday’s 12-11 Atlanta win, they scored 18 less Friday as runs were at a premium.
Asked if he wanted to protect home plate from Atlanta runners, he told reporters, “I definitely wanted to try and it worked out. It felt good to go out there and get deep into the game and give us a chance.”
Singer said his last two top-shelf starts are the result of some self-analysis.
“Just trying to be myself, try not go do too much,” he said. “I feel like I’d been trying to make the ball move too much to do some different stuff. I just decided to go out there and be myself and let my hand do the work. I focused on command and getting rid of walks.”
And what’s a Reds’ game without some breath-holding moments, or as Benson put it, “It ain’t a Reds game if it ain’t interesting, right?”
Closer Emilio Pagan made it more than interesting, he made it heart-palpitating in the Reds dugout.
It was 3-0 when he entered for the ninth.
He walked Marcell Ozuna on a full count. Michael Harris II singled to center, sending Ozuna to third. Ozzie Albies singled home Ozuna to make it 3-1.
Albies stole second, putting the two potential tying runs in scoring position with no outs. Pagan struck out Eli White. Pinch-hitter Luke Williams drove one to the left field wall that Jake Fraley caught, but Harris scored on the sacrifice fly and it was 3-2 with the tying run on second.
Atlanta leadoff hitter Jurickson Profar was 0 for 9 in the series when he dug into the batter’s box. On the first pitch, Profar made it 0 for 10 with a game-ending ground ball to second baseman McLain.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The Braves have lost a league-high 27 one-run games and the Reds improved to 13-15.
Atlanta still leads the season series four games to two with five of the six games decided by one run and three have gone into extra innings.
The scene shifts to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway Saturday night for the series finale. More than 85,000 are expected, enough to break MLB’s all-time regular season attendance record — 84,587 for a 1954 game between the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees in the old Mistake By the Lake, Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
NEXT GAME
Who: Braves vs. Reds at Bristol Motor Speedway
When: 7 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 2
TV: FOX
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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