There was ample good on display from the Cincinnati Reds at home in Great American Ball Park on Labor Day afternoon.
The single most releveant ‘good,’ of course, was the score. They scored a trio of runs in the Bottom of the 9th to come back and defeat the really, really good Toronto Blue Jays in walk-off fashion, a vital victory if they’ve got any shot of getting back into the playoff chase.
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Noelvi Marte provided the walk-off single through drawn-in defense, smashing it just hard enough to clear the dirt but just soft enough to give TJ Friedl enough time to score the game’s winning run all the way from 2B. Friedl had earlier provided a mammoth hit of his own in the form of a ground-rule double, and the production from that key part of the order was good enough for the Reds to claw out a win.
For the long term, though, the most important ‘good’ of the day was the debut of Sal Stewart, who was promoted to the Reds from AAA Louisville when rosters expanded at the turn of the calendar. He played 1B on the day, singled into LF in his first career big league plate appearance, and later scored while on his first tour of duty on the basepaths. It’s pretty clear the Reds are going to get him in the lineup whenever and wherever they can, and today that just so happened to be at 1B to get Spencer Steer a bit of a break (though Steer later came in to cover 1B defensively).
Ace Hunter Greene was very, very good today also. He pitched into the 7th inning before running into some minor trouble, eventually exiting after his 101st pitch and a final line of 6.1 IP, 5 H, ER, BB, 7 K. He lowered his season ERA down to a brilliant 2.70 in the process, and provided precisely the kind of start a team needs from its ace against playoff-bound competition.
The bad, though, was that Cincinnati long had this game in the bag because of Greene – and because of the early work of the Reds bullpen. It wasn’t until the Top of the 9th that Toronto even scored multiple runs, let alone claimed a 4-2 lead – all things they did off closer Emilio Pagan in yet another shaky performance from him. He owns just one save (on August 31st) across his last eight appearances, in which time he’s been on the mound twice for games lost in extra innings and now thrice blown a save opportunity. That’s something that’s going to need to be rectified in short order given that Cincinnati’s offense has such a hard time winning games by lots of runs, putting all sorts of increased pressure on their relief arms to get each and every single out they can.
Still, it was a big win for the Reds on a big day for the future of the franchise, and they dodged the kind of loss that would’ve really, truly put the nail in the coffin for their season.