CINCINNATI (WXIX) – In early September, the Cincinnati Reds had major problems.
Andrew Abbott looked gassed. A banged up Elly De La Cruz was coming up short. TJ Friedl was slumping, Miguel Andujar was barely seeing the field due to a quad injury and the back of the bullpen was drained.
With all of that going on, the season looked over.
On Wednesday, that exact group of players led the Reds to a 2-1 win over the Padres. With the victory, the Reds are just two games behind the Mets for the final wild card spot.
As the Reds won the series finale in San Diego, Abbott allowed one run in eight terrific innings, Friedl got an eighth inning rally started with a bunt as well as some hustle, De La Cruz drove in the game-tying run and Andujar pinch-hit and went on to drive in the go-ahead run. Santillan, the big league leader in pitching appearances, closed out the game and stranded the tying run on third base.
The Padres are my pick to win the World Series right now because of their power, playmaking and stellar bullpen. The Reds just went into a really difficult ballpark to play in and picked up a series win. They’ve won both of their series over the Padres this season, and the Reds also picked up a series win over the Mets over the weekend
The Reds have the depth, speed and pitching to play with anyone. They’re not in a playoff spot right now because of how their situational hitting and defense has cost them too many winnable games, but the Mets have kept losing and given the Reds a chance to start digging out of the hole they were in in the standings.
The Reds just played a fun series of meaningful September baseball where they outperformed a standout Padres team. The Reds are in the mix with two-and-a-half weeks left in the season.
Last Friday, the Reds loss to the Mets in the series opener felt like a death knell for Cincinnati’s season. The clubhouse was shellshocked after the defeat. The Reds had loaded the bases with no outs and stranded the game-tying run on third base. Abbott got rocked in that game and took the loss, and he looked very frustrated after the start.
Momentum is as good as the next day’s starting pitcher, and Brady Singer took the first step with a strong performance on Saturday. Sal Stewart also provided a spark with a key homer as the Reds took a game against the Mets, and his energy has also helped out the Reds this week.
Hunter Greene’s gem on Sunday, allowing one run in seven innings, gave the Reds another reason to stick out their chest. If Greene is pitching like that, the Reds can hang with anyone. They went on to take the series against the team that they’re chasing in the standings, but the Reds still had plenty of work to do.
Monday’s loss to the Padres was another heartbreaker. The Reds’ lack of bullpen depth — which could be alleviated very soon as Graham Ashcraft and Chase Burns near their returns — was exposed in the series opener. And the illness that cost the Reds a lot of their energy in early September came back to bite them against as Nick Lodolo, who had been sick, ran out of gas after the fifth inning.
The Reds bounced back again on Tuesday. This time, Zack Littell took the first step and delivered a quality start against a great lineup. The key players of this game were rookie relievers Connor Phillips and Zach Maxwell, who stepped up in a gassed Reds bullpen and threw scoreless seventh and eighth innings with the score tied. These rookies have electric stuff but have battled command issues. Facing a ton of pressure, they showed their upside in their most high-pressure outings of the season.
Tyler Stephenson provided a capital “M” Moment in the ninth inning with the go-ahead homer against an All-Star closer in the ninth. Whenever the Reds have gotten power production from the right side of the plate, they’ve looked like a playoff team this year.
Stephenson has battled injuries as well as the mental hurdle of coming back from those major injuries, and he has also seen the biggest spike in strikeout rate in all of baseball this year. But he’s one of the Reds’ best hitters at tuning out the noise in a big spot. His homer off Robert Suarez gave the Reds another reason to start believing again.
The win in the series finale in San Diego was the best win of the Reds’ season. Abbott, whose production fell off a cliff down the stretch in 2023 and 2024, seemed to be on a similar trajectory in 2025. Appearing to make some minor tweaks, Abbott immediately looked much sharper on Wednesday that he was over his previous few starts. More importantly, after Terry Francona said that he wanted to see Abbott pitching again with his chest metaphorically stuck out, Abbott looked like his confident self.
When you pitch, you have a chance. Starts by Singer, Greene, Littell and Abbott were catalysts for the Reds getting back in the race.
As good as Abbott was, the Reds still trailed by a run entering the eighth inning. De La Cruz stepped up to the plate against All-Star left-handed reliever Adrian Morejon. There’s a narrative that De La Cruz struggles in the clutch, and he really does struggle vs. standout left-handed pitching.
But this time, De La Cruz kept it simple and hit a ground ball single the other way. It was unbelievable situational hitting and a mature at-bat from the 23-year-old who found a way to help while he’s in the middle of a terrible slump. Friedl slid in safe by a finger to score as a result of a great slide.
Then, a banged-up De La Cruz dug deep and stole second base. That was one of the keys to the whole inning.
The Padres countered by intentionally walking Austin Hays, which gave the Reds a chance to use Andujar with the go-ahead run on second.
Andujar has barely been playing as he battles a quad injury. Watching him run the bases, it’s clear that he’s struggling. The Reds desperately need his bat, and Andujar’s time on the bench is a sign of the fact that he’s not moving like he needs to right now. But he’s still one of the best hitters for average in all of baseball vs. LHP, and he knocked in De La Cruz to give the Reds the lead. De La Cruz forced from second, and the threat of his speed wound up speeding up the Padres’ left fielder, who dropped the ball before getting his throw off.
Santillan took the mound for the ninth inning and picked up the save on a night where the Reds had to stay away from a taxed Emilio Pagán.
Pitching, depth and speed is a formula that has led the Reds to series wins over some of the best teams in baseball. It’s what gives them hope if they end up making it into the playoffs.
They still have a lot of work to do, and they’ll still likely have to go on their best run of the season to get there. But the collapsing Mets are giving the Reds that chance.
With Stephenson, Matt McLain, Ke’Bryan Hays, Hays and Friedl getting hotter, with Stewart now in the mix and with Ashcraft and Burns on the way back from the IL, the Reds are on an upward trajectory. The Reds have 10 potential regulars competing for nine spots in the lineup, a useful bench that includes Andujar and Will Benson, a standout rotation and late-game relievers that they can count on.
In the meantime, a young Reds team is getting a feel for late season tension. This series in San Diego with packed crowds felt pretty close to playoff baseball.
The pressure will continue to rise from here, but the series wins over the Mets and Padres served as two good tests for a Reds’ team that’s plenty alive in the race.
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