{"id":364492,"date":"2025-10-06T07:07:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T07:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/364492\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T07:07:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T07:07:35","slug":"october-come-early-cincinnati-reds-pull-playoff-levers-beat-cubs-now-1-game-behind-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/364492\/","title":{"rendered":"October come early? Cincinnati Reds pull playoff levers, beat Cubs, now 1 game behind Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"

As far as the Cincinnati Reds<\/a> are concerned, the playoffs have begun, 10 days ahead of MLB\u2019s official start to the postseason schedule.<\/p>\n

A few minutes after the New York Mets<\/a> 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<\/a> \u2013 the Reds\u2019 fourth straight victory and fifth in six games.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

Reds Cubs Elly De La Cruz ‘Game changer’: Is Elly De La Cruz about to break out for Cincinnati Reds just in time?<\/a><\/p>\n

Reds Cubs NL wild card Cincinnati Reds’ win over Cubs leaves them two games out of playoffs with eight to play<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, they don\u2019t do that again. I thought that was going to jinx us for a second,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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They\u2019ll almost certainly do it again. Because that\u2019s what happens when October comes early, when the final games on the schedule rise to that level with this much at stake.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Did somebody say playoff baseball?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve all kind of felt like that for, like, the last three weeks, maybe more,\u201d said closer Emilo Pag\u00e1n, who earned his 29th save with a scoreless ninth.<\/p>\n

\"Reds<\/p>\n

Reds first baseman Spencer Steer hits a fielder’s choice grounder that scored Matt McLain from third base in the third inning. Steer later hit a solo home run, his 21st, in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think there has to be some measure of urgency,\u201d Francona said.<\/p>\n

To that point, starter Zack Littell was done after just 73 pitches and five competitive innings because \u2013 as Francona signaled following his previous start \u2013 he wasn\u2019t likely to see the third time through the order anymore.<\/p>\n

Francona said he and pitching coach Derek Johnson discussed that plan between those starts, that “where we\u2019re at in the season if we get to a certain point and we’ve got enough left in our bullpen, that\u2019s good enough. And he got us to that point.”<\/p>\n

Littell pitched well, said both his manager and the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn June he\u2019d have probably gone back out there (in the sixth) and pitched,\u201d Francona said. \u201cWe\u2019re not in June.\u201d<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

That was until Tyler Stephenson made it a three-run game with a two-run home run in the bottom of the inning.<\/p>\n

Graham Ashcraft and Burns each pitched a 1-2-3 inning before that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Graham got that early call in the fifth, I know I was back stretching, but I\u2019m sure the whole bullpen then realized, \u2018OK, we\u2019re going for this. Everyone be ready,\u2019 \u201c said workhorse setup man Tony Santillan, who finished the eighth for Burns.<\/p>\n

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\u201cObviously, Tito\u2019s a great manager. He\u2019s a Hall of Fame manager, so he knows what he\u2019s doing,\u201d Santillan said. \u201cNo one\u2019s surprised how he managed because he\u2019s done it so long, and he\u2019s been very successful with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if it felt like October come early.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt that way for sure,\u201d Santillan said.<\/p>\n

\"Reds<\/p>\n

Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz gathers himself after stealing second base in the second inning of the game against the Chicago Cubs at Great American Ball Park on Sept. 20. It was De La Cruz’s 36th steal of the season.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Francona aggressively pulled platoon levers at first opportunities to gain the edge.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

He wound up getting four of the planned outs.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Stephenson approached Francona for a quick chat when he was on deck behind De La Cruz.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018If he walks do you want me to bunt?\u2019 \u201d Francona said. \u201cI said, \u2018No, I want you to hit it in the third row. I think he hit it in the third row. He\u2019s very coachable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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And for what it’s worth, Stephenson wasn’t worried about a jinx when the Mets score went up on the big board.<\/p>\n

“It was awesome,” he said. “Fans went crazy. The more support the better. It was a great environment, a great crowd tonight.”<\/p>\n

The Reds trailed until their two-run third, making this their 32nd comeback win since the start of June \u2013 tying the Blue Jays for most in MLB in that span.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely didn\u2019t make it easy on ourselves,\u201d Pag\u00e1n said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of chances to gain some ground and we weren\u2019t able to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re here now. And we\u2019ve got a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: NL wild-card race: Cincinnati Reds now just one game behind Mets<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As far as the Cincinnati Reds are concerned, the playoffs have begun, 10 days ahead of MLB\u2019s official…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[5,377,708,24,535,50,4259,513,1177,730,1178,4808,4,415,61,542,536,6288,1175,12475,1868,7656,5170],"class_list":{"0":"post-364492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-chase-burns","11":"tag-chicago-cubs","12":"tag-cincinnati","13":"tag-cincinnati-reds","14":"tag-cincinnatireds","15":"tag-drew-pomeranz","16":"tag-elly-de-la-cruz","17":"tag-gavin-lux","18":"tag-graham-ashcraft","19":"tag-miguel-andujar","20":"tag-mlb","21":"tag-nationals","22":"tag-new-york-mets","23":"tag-noelvi-marte","24":"tag-reds","25":"tag-spencer-steer","26":"tag-terry-francona","27":"tag-tony-santillan","28":"tag-tyler-stephenson","29":"tag-will-benson","30":"tag-zack-littell"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115325963320908182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}