The Reds needed a jolt after falling into a 4-1 hole in the first inning, and they got one in the form of power, patience and a bullpen that slammed the door. Cincinnati stormed back, grabbed the lead in the sixth, and held on for a 7-6 win over Atlanta to clinch the series.
The night opened with a bang. On just the fourth pitch of the game, Carlos Jorge turned on a fastball in the middle of the zone and sent it into the seats in right field for his first big league home run, putting Cincinnati up 1-0 right away.
Atlanta answered in a hurry. The Braves put together two straight singles to start the bottom of the first, then Matt Olson lifted a sacrifice fly to tie it.
Michael Harris II followed with a double that scored a run, Muaricio Dubon added another single, and Ozzie Albies reached on an infield single after Brady Singer collided with Sal Stewart as Stewart fielded the ball. Replay showed Albies hit the ball twice and should have been ruled a dead ball/foul ball, but the play was not reviewable and the single stood.
Singer then issued a walk, and a second sacrifice fly in the inning brought home another run to make it 4-1.
Cincinnati chipped away from there. In the second, Hector Rodriguez doubled with two outs to keep the inning alive, and Matt McLain followed with an RBI single up the middle to bring him home.
Then the Reds went after Tyler Mahle again in the third. Elly De La Cruz crushed a one-out solo shot, his 30th homer of the year, Sal Stewart singled, Tyler Stephenson walked to move him into scoring position, and Eugenio Suarez came through with a two-out single that drove in both runners and flipped the game to 5-4 Reds.
That lead didn’t last long. Singer allowed a game-tying solo homer to Austin Riley in the bottom of the third, and Atlanta kept pressing in the fifth.
Zach McCambley, who had come on in the fourth and retired his first four batters, gave up a one-out single and then a two-out RBI single to Mike Yastrzemski that pushed the Braves back in front, 6-5. Connor Phillips then entered and immediately walked the first two hitters he faced on four pitches each, loading the bases before getting Drake Baldwin to line out to center and escape the jam.
The Reds found the swing they needed in the sixth. AJ Smith-Shawver hit Eugenio Suarez with one out, and Hector Rodriguez made Atlanta pay. He jumped on a hanging curveball and launched it 423 feet into the seats in right field for a go-ahead two-run homer.
From there, Cincinnati’s bullpen took over. Phillips returned for a scoreless sixth, Tejay Antone and Brock Burke handled the seventh and eighth without a run, and Emilio Pagan came in for the save in the ninth.
Michael Harris II opened the inning with an infield chopper for a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, reached third on a wild pitch, and then watched Pagan strike out Ozzie Albies for the second out. A fly out to right center ended it, leaving the tying run stranded at third and sealing the series win.
Hector Rodriguez was the only Red with two hits, and he made them count: a double, a homer, two runs scored and two driven in. Elly De La Cruz finished with his 30th home run and is now one steal away from 30-30, with three games left in Toronto to try to get it. Brock Burke’s scoreless inning dropped his ERA to 2.30 across 77 appearances and 74.1 innings.
Cincinnati went 2-3 with runners in scoring position. Atlanta finished 3-10 and left 10 men on base.
Carlos Jorge’s groundout in the third produced the fastest sprint speed by a Reds player all year at 31.6 feet/second, topping the mark he set two days earlier. Even though he didn’t join the team until September 4 and hasn’t played every day, he now owns 8 of the 10 fastest sprint speeds among Reds players this season. He also had 11 put outs, the most by a Reds outfielder in a nine-inning game since 1900.
Brady Singer’s stretch since the Reds chose not to trade him has been rough, with an 8.39 ERA over 10 starts, and his fastball peaked at 91.0 MPH in this one without even averaging 90. Ke’Bryan Hayes went 0-4 and is now 2-31 in September, with a .141 average on the year.
In Other News...
Reds Report Puts Ownership Heat On Krall Debate All Over Again
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The report says Castellini pushed back on trades Krall proposed that would have moved established players, while Krall continued to focus on collecting and developing young talent. Some of Kralls trades are part of that larger picture, and the broader challenge for the organization remains the same: figuring out whether patience, aggression, or some mix of both can finally get the Reds where they want to go. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Collapse Put One Big Clubhouse Problem Front And Center
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What stood out most was how thin the veteran layer felt around that young core. The offseason did not bring the kind of experienced clubhouse additions that can steady a team through the inevitable rough patches, and the collapse has put that choice under a brighter spotlight for the front office as it figures out how to build on a promising start that never quite carried over. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Fans Just Got A Front Office Message That Solves Nothing
Cincinnatis offseason has already been heavy on questions about direction, and the latest message from ownership did little to change that. Bob and Phil Castellini said Nick Krall and Brad Meador will keep steering baseball operations, while the organization also takes a closer look at its player development system, a sign the Reds are still trying to sort out what needs fixing after years of uneven results.
The larger point from the statement was clear enough: baseball people will make baseball decisions, and the front office wants that line to be understood. But for a fan base worn down by modest postseason returns and underwhelming development rankings, the announcement mostly confirmed the same thing it was meant to answer, leaving the real test where it has been for a while now, on whether the organization can turn that structure into better outcomes. [Read more 🡒]