- They avoided a six-game losing streak.
- They avoided falling under .500 for the season.
- They avoided collapsing into fourth place behind the Cardinals in the National League Central.
- They avoided another missed opportunity to gain ground on the New York Mets, who keep waiting on the Reds to catch them in the wild card chase.
The win enabled the Reds to lift their record to 69-68, gain a game on the stumbling Mets to four games behind and stay 1 1/2 games ahead of the Cardinals.
And how did they do it?
The No. 1 factor is sending their most reliable pitcher to the mound, Brady Singer.
The No. 2 factor was some firepower displayed by Austin Hays and a fast-rejuvenating Matt McLain.
The No. 3 factor was wipe-out bullpen work by Tony Santillan and Emilio Pagan.
And it helped immensely that they were facing a woebegotten Andre Pallante. The Cardinals have lost 12 of his last 14 starts and his confidence is down where Crustaceans live.
Singer avoided some misfortune in the first three innings that was not of his making, stuff that had contributed to the five-game losing streak.
But he sloughed those off and pitched six solid innings, giving up three runs and five hits, walking none and striking out eight.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
It gave him his 12th win, most on the staff, as he pitched into the sixth inning for the sixth time in his last seven starts.
Hays provided the big swing, breaking a 3-3 tie in the fifth inning with a two-run home run, then Santillan and Pagan made certain the Reds didn’t let this one escape their clutches.
Santillan pitched the eighth and struck out side. Pagan pitched the ninth and gave up a leadoff infield hit, then struck out the side for his 26th save.
It did not start positively for the Reds.
Manager Tito Francona used Elly De La Cruz as the designated hitter and moved McLain from second base to shortstop.
And it figured. The first St. Louis batter, Lars Nootbar popped up a routine out behind shortstop. But McLain over-ran it and it plopped on the grass for a single.
Then on a hit-and-run, second baseman Gavin Lux ran to cover second and Ivan Herrera rolled a slow ground ball into right field for a single.
Nootbar scored on a sacrifice fly lobbed to left by Nolan Gorman. With two outs, Thomas Saggese singled home a run and it was 2-0.
“I just had to keep pushin,’” Singer told reporters after the game about the first two Cardinals reaching base on softly hit balls. “It was kind of a weird first one (inning), but I just had to try to make pitches and limit the damage as much as I could there in the first.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
An error by St. Louis rookie second baseman Cesar Prieto with one out in the second opened it up for a three-run response.
A full-count walk to Spencer Steer and a run-scoring single by Ke’Bryan Hayes was followed by a two-out, two-run single by TJ Friedl, who was 2 for 20 against Pallante.
That gave the Reds a 3-2 lead, but more Marte high-jinks in right field permitted St. Louis to tie it in the third.
Nootbar drove on to the wall and Marte snagged it, but when he fell to the warning track the ball dislodged and Nootbar had a triple.
Ivan Herrera lifted a medium-depth fly to right. Nootbar tagged and fled homeward. Marte made an unfathomable on the fly throw and Nootbar was called out. . .until replay/review ruled him safe and the score was 3-3.
De La Cruz opened the fifth by punching a ground ball inside the third base bag and turned it into a huslte double. Hays followed by going from 0-and-2 to 3-and-2 before propelling Pallante’s 87 miles an hour slide 383 feet into the left field seats for a 5-3 lead.
St. Louis rookie catcher Jimmy Crooks grabbed his first major league hit leading off the seventh against Sam Moll, a home run into the right field seats, cutting the Reds’ lead to 5-4.
Hays struck again in the seventh, leading the inning with a double and scoring on a second run-producing single by Hayes.
And McLain, suddenly laying off low-and-away breaking balls, led the Reds eighth with his second home run in two days for the 7-4 final margin.
“It has been a quiet last week,” said Hays with a massive understatement. “We wanted to play some music in the clubhouse after a win again.”
There is no post-game music after a loss and recently a funeral dirge was apropos. But there is music after a win and Hays’ home run was music to the Reds’ ears.
“The guys were juiced up for the game today and we weren’t letting what’s happened the last few days get us down,” said Hays. “We just tried to stay locked in mentally and go out there and play as hard as we can, play good, clean baseball and the rest will take care of itself.”
As are most of the Reds, Hays is just emerging from some hard times in the batter’s box.
“I rely on my teammates,” he said. “When things aren’t going good for yourself, you don’t feel bad for yourself, you don’t want to wallow in it, it’s over. Tomorrow is a new day.”
Of the gargantuan home run, Hays said, “He got me with two strikes, so I was trying to get something up in the zone and wo
rst-case scenario I move Elly over to third. I got a hanging breaking ball and was able to catch it out front and backspin it to left.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The Reds try to make it two in a row Monday afternoon when the Toronto Blue Jay, first-place occupants of the American League East, open a three-game series in GABP.
NEXT GAME
Who: Toronto at Cincinnati
When: 1:10 p.m.
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM
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