The score was tied with two outs and two on when Steer crushed Sheehan’s 11th pitch, a high 96 miles an hour fastball, for a two-run triple, the deciding runs in the Reds’ 5-2 victory.
But, oh, those 11 pitches. There was enough drama, conflict and change-of-momentum to fill an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
Steer fouled off five pitches, four on a 3-and-2 count. And one foul was the third out ... should have been the third out.
It was a high fly down the left field line near the side wall. Left fielder Andy Pages leaped next to the wall and the ball hit the heel on his glove and bounced to the ground.
In the batter’s box, Steer puffed his cheeks and said, “Woo.”
Reds manager Tito Francona told reporters after the game, “If that kid catches that ball, you would have seen me cry. I mean, I woulda cried.”
Steer fouled off another pitch then splattered the next one to deep center. James Outman leaped above and over the wall. Once again the ball struck leather but didn’t stick.
It ricocheted off his glove and returned to the playing field as Austin Hayes scored from second and Tyler Stephenson scored from first — both had reached base on walks.
Outman came that close to also bringing Francona to tears.
“That was such a good at bat by Steer, I mean, my goodness,” he said. “He took some good swings and fouled off some good pitches and got himself into a position where you get dangerous.
“When you see that many pitches and the guy is starting to get tired, he has to make a really good pitch, or you got a chance to get hurt,” Francona added.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Hurt? It was fatal to Sheehan and the Dodgers, stopped from becoming the first team this season to sweep the Reds.
Sheehan had retired 10 of the first 11 Reds he faced after coming out of the bullpen to pitch the fifth. But with one out in the eighth, he walked Hays on a full count and with two outs he walked Stephenson.
It was time for Steer to establish squatter’s rights in the batter’s box. The sequence: foul, ball, ball, foul, foul, ball (3-and-2), foul foul, foul, foul, triple.
“I was thinking that ball was going foul and, yeah, I got second life,” Steer said of the dropped foul ball. “When that happens, you have to take advantage of it.
“He (Sheehan) has a really good heater and I knew that’s what he wanted to get me out with,” said Steer. “He got me out with an elevated heater the at-bat before (strikeout), so I really just had to find a way to get on top of that thing.
“He has good stuff and it was really fun to get on top of that thing and try to drive something into the gap,” he added.
The Reds scored first against LA starter Shohei Ohtani on a leadoff double by Gavin Lux and a single by Elly De La Cruz.
The Dodgers bolted ahead when Freddie Freeman, a triple thorn in the side of the Reds the entire series, hit a two-run homer off Reds starter Nick Martinez in the fourth.
Ohtani gave up a leadoff infield hit to Noelvi Marte to open the fourth and threw two wild pitches. Then he walked Stephenson on four pitches. When he went to 2-and-0 on Steer, the athletic training staff rushed to the mound and Ohtani left with cramps.
Anthony Banda replaced Ohtani and threw two more balls to fill the bases with no outs. But the Reds scored only one run on Will Benson’s sacrifice fly, but that tied it, 2-2, setting it up for Steer’s stay in the batter’s box long enough to grow a beard.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Martinez pitched six solid innings and gave up two runs and four hits while walking two and striking out seven.
Luis Mey, called up from Louisville earlier in the day when relief pitcher Taylor Rogers was traded to Pittsburgh, pitched a scoreless seventh with a walk and two strikeouts.
Sam Moll put two on in the eighth and Scott Barlow came in to give up a single to Teoscar Hernadez to load the bases with one out, then left them full by retiring Pages on a pop up and Michael Conforto on a fly ball to right fielder Noelvi Marte, his first putout of the game.
Tony Santillan hit rookie Alex Freeland with a pitch with one out in the ninth, then put away Mookie Betts and Ohtani on line drives to center field.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Ohtani, by rule, was permitted to stay in the game as the designated hitter after he was removed from the mound. No problem. In the final two games he was 0 for 10 with five strikeouts.
“We’re really showing who we are by not giving in,” said Martinez. “We’re playing some really good baseball and tonight showed that.
“And what an at bat by Spence, that was great,” he added. “Benson had a huge game and Luis Mey came off the plane and gave us a shutdown inning in a real tight ball game against a great club.”
Benson, playing center field while TJ Friedl is on paternity leave, made three above-and-beyond running catches, one on a dive, and drove in two runs, including the fifth run with a single after Steer’s triple.
“The Dodgers demand a high focus, you can’t let up, not a lot of room to breathe,” said Martinez. “You have to be at your best mentally.”
Before the game, the Reds traded Rogers and minor league infield prospect to Pittsburgh for third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, a defensive dandy with not much pop in his bat.
Francona said he will be in the lineup Thursday night against the Atlanta Braves and will be the regular third baseman, shoving Marte to the outfield.
“He might be the best defender in baseball and if not he is right there,” said Francona. “He is that good. We’re trying to find ways to get better and sometimes it might not be the sexiest move, but we care so much about trying to play clean baseball and this will be a huge step in that direction.”
The Reds also acquired Rays righty Zack Littell and sent Dayton Dragons pitcher Adam Serwinowski and Brian Van Belle to Tampa Bay.
NEXT GAME
Who: Braves at Reds
When: 7:10 p.m., Thursday, July 31
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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