DETROIT – These are the kinds of days the Cincinnati Reds envisioned when they talked about being a playoff team after hiring manager Terry Francona and adding a bunch of veteran pieces around the edges of the roster.
Not exactly the part about missing their best pitcher (Hunter Greene) for the foreseeable future because of a groin injury, or their best hitter when he’s played this season (Austin Hays) to a third injury to the same left leg already this season.
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But the home runs in the same game by middle-infield step-bros Elly De La Cruz and Matt McLain? The grand slam by Tyler Stephenson? The 98-mph relay throw by De La Cruz to cut down Javy Baez at the plate and overall clean, errorless game all day long against the top team in the majors?
Tyler Stephenson celebrates his fifth-inning grand slam Saturday in Detroit. Stephenson’s slam was part of the Reds’ six-run fifth inning that gave them a 7-1 lead.
That’s the idea. The crazy idea that the Reds would be contenders in the buzz-saw National League this year.
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On Saturday, it looked like a 11-1 win against the buzz-saw of the American League, the Detroit Tigers.
And with no guarantees of what awaits with 91 games to go – or even Sunday’s series finale with Wade Miley on the mound – Saturday’s rout of the runaway leaders of the American League Central offered a one-day glimpse of the promise of what has been a wildly inconsistent lineup.
“All of us know what we’re capable of and how we can play, and I feel like we’ve been doing that the last week or so,” said Stephenson, who’s 10-for-23 (.435) with three doubles, a walk and the home run in his last five games. “So we’ve just got to maintain it, trust ourselves and keep doing what we’re doing and play the baseball that we know how to play.”
Tigers shortstop Javier Báez is tagged out a home plate by Reds catcher Jose Trevino in the third inning Saturday June 14. Baez was thrown out by Elly De La Cruz, who took the cutoff thrown from right fielder Jake Fraley, who fielded the ball on a bounce off the wall.
Of course, if there’s one thing you can count on from an inconsistent lineup it’s that it probably won’t stay down (or up) long.
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On this day, the Reds knocked around veteran starter Jack Flaherty and a bullpen that eventually included catcher Jake Rogers for six walks and 12 hits, including four home runs (also Spencer Steer).
“They had a really good pitcher going today,” Francona said. “I mean he is a really good pitcher. But we made him work. Got his pitch count up.”
Stephenson’s grand slam came on the first pitch after De La Cruz walked on five pitches.
“You’ve probably heard me say it from the first day of spring training: If they don’t pitch to Elly you want them to pay for it,” Francona said. “That’s the idea. We try to put whoever’s hot behind him the best we can. And without Hays it’s a little more challenging.”
Brady Singer got the win in the Reds’ 11-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers Saturday, June 14, allowing one run in six innings. He allowed four hits and two walks while striking out four.
Ten of the 11 Reds who batted had hits in this one, and the one who didn’t, Will Benson, reached on a walk.
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Leadoff man TJ Friedl reached three times, as did catcher Jose Trevino. Stephenson added a double to his slam. Christian Encarnacion-Strand got his first hit since the night Francona kissed his bat Monday in Cleveland.
You get the idea. The big idea. The crazy idea.
Steer, whose fifth-inning homer knocked Flaherty out of the game, left the game a few innings later after he took a ball off his hand on a check swing (that turned into a 2-3 out in the seventh).
Subsequent X-rays were negative, Francona said. “It kind of scared us at first just the way it hit him, and it was discolored and swollen right away,” Francona said. “It’s already looking a little better. So I think we dodged a bullet there.”
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Reds starter Brady Singer, who made a career out of beating the Tigers while pitching in Kansas City, improved to 7-1 against Detroit with a 3.16 ERA in 14 career starts.
Singer (7-4) gave up just four hits in six innings on this day, allowing a fourth-inning run after a pair of walks and two-out hit by Wenceel Perez.
The win also meant the Reds extended their streak to 23 series this year without being swept, their longest streak to open a season since 1989, when they went 30 before getting swept by the Phillies.
Besides the Reds, only the Yankees and Mets have not been swept this season.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds rout MLB-best Detroit Tigers, even series