He was playing for the woeful Miami Marlins in 2025 until two days after Christmas last year when he was traded to the Reds.
And to Reds fans, the trade seemed a ho-hum, so-what deal, one that involved the Reds sending minor leaguer Ethan O’Donnell (who?) to the Marlins.
The Reds acquired the 30-year-old right-handed hitter as a bench option to face left-handed pitchers.
But there he was Saturday afternoon, standing in the batter’s box in the 11th-inning facing Boston Red Sox righthander Justin Slater.
Myers only entered the game when manager Tito Francona made a slew of defensive changes — TJ Friedl from center to left, Spencer Steer from left to first to third and Myers to center.
The score was tied and the winning run, ghost runner Friedl stood at second base.
Slater threw Myers a high slider and he whip-lashed it into left field for a 6-5 Reds walk-off victory.
He has that knack. It was his third career walk-off hit. Elly De La Cruz has none.
“The team and the coaches have a lot of confidence in me, so it’s easy for me to have confidence in myself,” Myers told reporters after the game.
Asked if he has a knack for walk-offs, he told reporters, “I think so. I trust in my prepping and in my working. I didn’t start the game today, but I figured I’d be in some time to help the team somehow and I’m so happy I came through.”
Of his game-decided at bat, he said, “Good pitcher (Slater) with pretty good stuff. That pitch I hit was a pretty decent pitch (high slider), well-located. I was just trying to see him up and put the ball in play.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
He put the ball in play and play was over.
“That was a really good at bat,” Francona told reporters. “We got him here to face some lefthanders and he gets thrust into that (facing righthander Slater). We’ll take it. At that point, I didn’t care how it happened, I just wanted it to happen.”
The game never should have entered extras. The Reds led, 5-4, with two outs in the ninth inning.
Francona gambled by inserting closer Emilio Pagan into the game in the eighth inning, only the third time in his closing career he pitched more than one inning.
The previous two resulted in blown saves. So did this one.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
With one strike on Boston’s Wilyer Abreu and two outs, Pagan threw one center cut and Abreu cranked it into the right field sun deck. Tie game.
Connor Phillips pitched the 10th and 11th and was untouchable — no runs, no hits, three strikeouts with the ghost runner on second in both innings.
The Broadway Show ‘Damn Yankees’ had a song in it, ‘Ya Gotta Have Heart.’
And on this day, the Reds had heart — the heart of the batting order.
The 2-3-4 spots in the order was on base 11 times with seven hits, four walks and two homers.
Matt McLain was on base five times with a double, two singles and two walks.
Elly De La Cruz hit his first homer of the season and walked twice.
And rookie Sal Stewart? Oh, Sal Stewart. Two more hits that included a home run and a walk. The 22-year-old first baseman has five hits in his first two games, the youngest player in Reds history to collect five hits in the first two games of a season.
The Reds jumped on former teammate Sonny Gray, making his debut with the Red Sox, for two runs on 35 pitches in the first inning.
Stewart drove in the first run with a single and McLain, who walked, scored a second run when Eugenio Suarez tapped one back to Gray.
Instead of throwing to the catcher, Gray sprinted toward McLain and tried to tag him, but the ball became dislodged and it was 2-0.
McLain’s two-out double in the second gave the Reds a 3-0 lead.
Stewart made it 4–1 in the third with a 399-foot lob into the sun deck in right before the Red Sox scored two in the fourth to draw within 4-3.
Brady Singer started for the Reds and spent a lot of time rubbing and blowing on his right index finger, where he developed a blister during spring training.
He gave up a third-inning home run to Trevor Story, but the De La Cruz homer in the fifth pushed the Reds led to 5-3.
Singer gave up three straight two-out hits for two runs in the fourth, that sliced the Reds lead to 4-3 before the De La Cruz homer.
Singer was done after four innings and 73 pitches.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
What followed was a grass-trampling parade out of the Reds bullpen — Sam Moll, Pierce Johnson, Graham Ashcraft, Tony Santillan, Pagan and Phillips.
The Red Sox scored a run off Ashcraft in the seventh on a walk, wild pitch and Abreu’s double.
So it stood 5-4, Reds, until two outs in the ninth and Abreu’s game-tying home run off Pagan for a blown save.
Conner Phillips took it from there and Myers finished it dramatically.
Myers batted in the ninth-inning on Opening Day and flied to left during the 3-0 loss, so his game-winner Saturday was his first hit for the Reds.
And the biggest so far this season.
NEXT GAME
Who: Red Sox at Reds
When: 1:40 p.m.
TV: Reds.TV
Radio: 1410-AM
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