The moribund Cincinnati Reds looked just that for most of their three-game series by the San Francisco Bay. They entered play on Wednesday afternoon having scored just a lone run through the first two games of the series, that coming late on Tuesday in the form of a solo Sal Stewart homer.
Not even moving Hector Rodriguez to the leadoff spot could seemingly spark enough of a turnaround, even though he’d homered earlier on Wednesday. The problem this time was that starter Nick Lodolo and the bullpen
arms who backed him had struggled mightily themselves, and the Reds found themselves in a 9-3 hole heading into the Top of the 9th.
It was Rodriguez who got that party started, too, even if he did so with a noted ‘rally killer.’ Of course, when the rally killer comes off the bat at 115 mph and lands in McCovey Cove, the one run may well have been a bit more magnified to the bats behind him that suddenly saw the ball go in the basket for once.
The Reds later loaded the bases for the struggling Eugenio Suarez, who un-struggled the bases clear with a monster grand slam into the wind that brought the Reds to within 9-8.
The Reds later kept the pressure on with some noted small ball that featured an infield single, an error by the defense, and even a Matt McLain bunt single. Jose Trevino then leveled the score with a sac fly before Tyler Stephenson smoked a liner into LF to drive in the game’s final run and give Cincinnati a 10-9 lead that Emilio Pagan made good.
Quite the way to finish an otherwise dismal road trip. We’ll see if the Reds have what it takes to a) channel this momentum and b) capitalize on a lineup shuffle that maybe, just maybe will get Hector hot and put some more runs on the board going into the meat of their schedule.
