It was the perfect scenario for the Reds to end their four-game losing streak.
And they played the script perfectly with a 7-1 victory that not only stopped their losing spell but ended Miami’s 11-game road winning streak.
Abbott? He displayed why he should have been named to the All-Star team with the original picks rather than have to wait to be chosen as an afterthought.
He pitched 7 2/3 innings and held the Marlins to one run and six hits with two walks and four strikeouts. In 13 of his 16 starts he has given up one or fewer earned runs and the Reds are 12-4 in games he started.
Abbott has a modest aw-shucks demeanor and is the kind of guy who would turn himself in to the traffic enforcement bureau if he ran a yellow light.
That’s why he didn’t make a curtain call when fans heard during Tuesday’s game that he was an All-Star and they cheered and chanted his name.
He gave up a run-scoring two-out single in the eighth on his 100th pitch and manager Tito Francona removed him. As he trudged to the dugout the fans gave him a standing ovation and kept cheering when he disappeared into the dugout, demanding a curtain call.
No dice. He was appreciative of the standing ‘O,’ but there will be no curtain calls.
“That was awesome,” Abbott told reporters of the ovation. “I’m a modest guy and I’m not going to do anything crazy. I’ve never been like that and I probably never will.
“I am grateful and I did have a good game, but that’s about as much as you’re gonna get out of me,” he added.
He gave enough to the Marlins.
Offensively, the other All-Star, Elly De La Cruz, contributed a pair of opposite-field run-scoring doubles. And Noelvi Marte and Will Benson launched coast-to-coast homers.
During their four straight losses, the Reds jumped to a 1-0 lead in all four, only to lose them all.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
This time they tore into Alcantara for three runs in the first inning and added three more in the fourth for a 6-0 lead. While losing four straight, the Reds scored five total runs.
Abbott took it from there. The Marlins hit some balls hard early and had four hits through four innings, but no runs because Abbott does what he always does.
He is a magician at escaping trouble. The Marlins put their first hitter on base in the second, third and fourth, but didn’t score. They put their first two on in the third but didn’t score.
Otto Lopez opened the fourth with a single, then Abbott retired 11 straight until issuing a two-out walk in the seventh.
As he always does, Abbott made in-game adjustments after the Marlins hit some balls hard early-on.
“In the second inning, they hit three deep fly balls to the warning track,” Reds manager Tito Francona told reporters after the game. “D.J. (pitching coach Derek Johnson) reminded him to start using his cutter, get it in on them. And it really opened up the plate.”
The cutter is a relatively new pitch for Abbott but it came in handy.
“Before the third inning, DJ and (catcher) Tyler Stephenson and me were looking at their at bats,” said Abbott. “They were hanging over the plate, looking away. We needed to get in on them to stand them up, keep ‘em off balance.
“So we shifted the game plan to the cutter and to me it looked like it made them a little uncomfortable and it opened up every other avenue.”
And that’s why he is an All-Star.
Alcantara, the National League Cy Young winner in 2022, underwent Tommy John surgery and missed all of last season. So this season he hasn’t even been a slim shadow of himself.
He retired TJ Friedl to open the first, then four straight Reds reached base. Matt McLain walked on a full count and stole second. He is 14 for 14 in stolen bases for his short career.
De La Cruz shot a run-scoring double the opposite way off the left field wall, scoring McLain. Austin Hays drilled the next pitch for a run-scoring single.
Gavin Lux singled Hays to third and Tyler Stephenson singled him home for the third run of the inning.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The Reds struck for three more in the fourth. Stephenson walked and after a fielder’s choice, Noelvi Marte put out some lights on a scoreboard on the facade of the upper deck in left, a first-pitch 421-foot two-run homer. Friedl singled, took second on a wild pitch and scored on another De La Cruz opposite-field double to left for a 6-0 lead.
Will Benson put a punctuation mark, an exclamation point, on the victory with a 425-foot home run that narrowly missed the Toyota sign. Had he hit it, some fan would own a new truck.
The Marlins had scored five or more runs in their last seven road wins, but Abbott put the muzzle on it. And the Marlins had won 12 of their last 15 overall.
NEXT GAME
Who: Miami at Cincinnati
When: 5:10 p.m.
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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