Tyler Stephenson gives Reds cushion with late homer in victory over Cubs
Cincinnati Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning of a 6-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 20.
The Cincinnati Reds beat the Cubs for their fourth straight victory, pulling to within one game of the final NL playoff spot in the process.The Cubs pulled to within one run of the Reds in the eighth inning, but Tyler Stephenson hit a two-run home run to provide a bit of a cushion.The Reds hold the tiebreaker against the New York Mets, who hold the final playoff spot, should they tie.
As far as the Cincinnati Reds are concerned, the playoffs have begun, 10 days ahead of MLB’s official start to the postseason schedule.
A few minutes after the New York Mets lost to the Nationals in 11 innings Sept. 20, Will Benson singled home a go-ahead run for the Reds in the third inning of an eventual 6-3 win over the Chicago Cubs – the Reds’ fourth straight victory and fifth in six games.
About an inning after Benson’s hit, the Reds’ crack game-day video board staff played the final out of the Mets game and flashed the final score, eliciting the anticipated roar from the mostly Reds-partisan home crowd of 31,756.
“Hopefully, they don’t do that again. I thought that was going to jinx us for a second,” said Spencer Steer, whose fourth home run in as many days gave the Reds the lead for good in the fifth after the Cubs had tied it.
They’ll almost certainly do it again. Because that’s what happens when October comes early, when the final games on the schedule rise to that level with this much at stake.
When the Reds’ bullpen closed out the game with four strong innings, the Reds closed the gap on the Mets for the final playoff spot in the National League to just one game with seven to play for each team. And for those scoring at home, the Reds own the tiebreaker against the Mets.
Did somebody say playoff baseball?
“They’ve all kind of felt like that for, like, the last three weeks, maybe more,” said closer Emilo Pagán, who earned his 29th save with a scoreless ninth.
What made it different on this night against the Cubs was the glimpse October-tested manager Terry Francona gave his fans and his players by pulling bench and bullpen levers in the fifth inning, playoff style.
“I think there has to be some measure of urgency,” Francona said.
To that point, starter Zack Littell was done after just 73 pitches and five competitive innings because – as Francona signaled following his previous start – he wasn’t likely to see the third time through the order anymore.
Francona said he and pitching coach Derek Johnson discussed that plan between those starts, that “where we’re at in the season if we get to a certain point and we’ve got enough left in our bullpen, that’s good enough. And he got us to that point.”
Littell pitched well, said both his manager and the results.
“In June he’d have probably gone back out there (in the sixth) and pitched,” Francona said. “We’re not in June.”
Once the well rested bullpen took over, the Reds controlled the rest of the game, with the exception of a hiccup in the eighth of back-to-back doubles against rookie Chase Burns that made it a one-run game.
That was until Tyler Stephenson made it a three-run game with a two-run home run in the bottom of the inning.
Graham Ashcraft and Burns each pitched a 1-2-3 inning before that.
“Once Graham got that early call in the fifth, I know I was back stretching, but I’m sure the whole bullpen then realized, ‘OK, we’re going for this. Everyone be ready,’ “ said workhorse setup man Tony Santillan, who finished the eighth for Burns.
“Obviously, Tito’s a great manager. He’s a Hall of Fame manager, so he knows what he’s doing,” Santillan said. “No one’s surprised how he managed because he’s done it so long, and he’s been very successful with it.”
Even if it felt like October come early.
“It felt that way for sure,” Santillan said.
Along the way, Francona aggressively pulled platoon levers at first opportunities to gain the edge.
That meant lefty-crushing Miguel Andujar pinch-hitting for DH Gavin Lux as soon as lefty Drew Pomeranz entered the game (and delivering a single) and righty Noelvi Marte pinch-hitting two batters later for the lefty Benson (and lining out to left to end the inning).
Even the Burns move was part of the plan down the stretch to use the 100-mph rookie strikeout maker in two-inning spurts as an all-but-scripted weapon.
He wound up getting four of the planned outs.
By the time Marte singled to lead off the bottom of the eighth and Elly De La Cruz followed by getting ahead in the count in a one run game, the players were starting to think close-game, small-ball, playoff-type tactics.
Stephenson approached Francona for a quick chat when he was on deck behind De La Cruz.
“He said, ‘If he walks do you want me to bunt?’ ” Francona said. “I said, ‘No, I want you to hit it in the third row. I think he hit it in the third row. He’s very coachable.”
And for what it’s worth, Stephenson wasn’t worried about a jinx when the Mets score went up on the big board.
“It was awesome,” he said. “Fans went crazy. The more support the better. It was a great environment, a great crowd tonight.”
The Reds trailed until their two-run third, making this their 32nd comeback win since the start of June – tying the Blue Jays for most in MLB in that span.
If the Reds beat the Mets for the third wild-card spot, they would open the official playoffs Sept. 30 on the road, likely against the NL West champion.
“Definitely didn’t make it easy on ourselves,” Pagán said. “We’ve had a lot of chances to gain some ground and we weren’t able to do it.
“But we’re here now. And we’ve got a shot.”