So on Saturday afternoon the Reds piled up a 12-run lead by the end of the fourth inning and said, “OK, come back from that.”
They didn’t. Not even close.
With a three-run home run by Christian Encarnacion-Strand in a five-run first and with a grand slam home run by Gavin Lux during an eight-run fourth, the Reds recorded a 13-1 no-worrier.
It enabled the Reds to complete a mini-doubleheader sweep and clinch the three-game series.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Asked after the game if he and the team were thinking about what Arizona did in Atlanta, manager Tito Francona said with a grin, “Not until now. No, but we never assume anything.”
The Reds completed a game suspended after six innings Friday night with a 4-3 walk-off 10th-inning win in the four-inning Game One.
Encarnacion-Strand ended that game with a double, ending the Reds 0-and-5 futility in extra innings. And in those previous five losses they hadn’t scored a run.
In two games, CES had five hits, drive in five runs and hit two homers.
Both rallies started with a walk.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
TJ Friedl walked to open the first and the game was over. Elly Dela Cruz walked with one out and CES ripped a three-run homer, his second in two games since coming off the disabled list.
The Reds added two more in the first for a 5-0 lead. The Reds have scored 55 runs in the first inning this season, most in the majors.
The Reds only scored in one more inning, but it was a snowman ‘8’ on six hits, two walks and a hit batsman.
Spencer Steer started it with a walk and came around to score, then batted again in the inning and produced a run-scoring single.
The first six Reds reached base against Arizona relief pitcher Kendall Graveman during the eight-run uprising.
True to form, Francona had a different take on the game’s big play.
It wasn’t CES’s home run. It wasn’t Lux’s grand slam. It wasn’t Steer getting on base twice during the eight-run inning.
It was a bunt. A push bunt base hit by Matt McLain that filled the bases with no outs, setting it up for Lux’s third career grand slam.
“McLain’s bunt,” he said. “I hope that never gets lost in all the good that happened today. Because that to me was the play of the game.”
The mound was still sticky and gooey from Friday night’s flood and a shower during Saturday’s game.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Said starting pitcher Nick Martinez, a welcome recipient of 13 early runs and a guy who has pitched several games in muddy conditions, “I love the slop. Live for the slop.”
He also loves pitching with a 13-run lead and held the D-Backs to one run and six hits over six innings, with one walk and six strikeouts.
The only run came off the bat of former Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez, a home run in the second. It was his 100th home run in Great American Ball Park. He hit 49 homers for the Reds in 2019.
He was traded to Seattle before the 2022 season in a deal that brought Jake Fraley to the Reds.
“It’s great, man. I love it when the boys are swinging it that way,” said Martinez. “It’s a lot more fun pitching with a lead like that.”
Lux talked more about Encarnacion-Strand than himself after the carnage.
After saying, “Any time you can get four steaks (RBI) with one swing is always good,” he said of CES, “He plays with a lot of energy and passion and it’s contagious. It’s great having him back because he can do some damage, something we’ve lacked a little bit.”
Arizona came to town on a four-game winning streak that the Reds stopped abruptly.
“Beating a good team twice in one day is always good,” said Lux. “CES coming back and having some real big at bats to help get our momentum going. . .we’ve said it, we’re about to get hot.
“We just have to keep playing hard,” he added. “Our pitchers keep us in games so if we continue to have good at bats like we have, this series at least, we’re going to be where we want to be.”
When a team inserts a position player to pitch late in the game, it is admitting its embarrassment. The D-Backs had catcher Jose Herrera pitch the eighth.
Throwing 40 miles an hour knuckleballs, he gave up two hits, but no runs.
Maybe the D-Backs should have started him.
NEXT GAME
Who: Arizona at Cincinnati
When: 1:40 p.m.
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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