The Cincinnati Reds had to overcome a 5-0 deficit, a rain delay of nearly two hours, losing the lead in the 8th inning, and having no one on base with two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning – but they did all of those things and the result was a walk-off win on a 2-run home run just before midnight to beat the Detroit Tigers 9-8.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit Tigers (14-13) | 8 | 11 | 1 |
| Cincinnati Reds (17-9) | 9 | 11 | 0 |
| W: Ashcraft (1-0) L: Jansen (0-1) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
After a scoreless 1st inning it was Detroit that got the scoring started when Riley Greene hit a solo home run in the 2nd inning. The Tigers would get to Andrew Abbott again in the top of the 3rd when Javier Baez hit a leadoff home run to make it 2-0. They would then string together a walk, single, and an RBI double by Matt Cierling to plate two more runs and extend the lead to 4-0. The next inning a leadoff double led to another run scoring when Jahmai Jones singled with two outs to push the lead for the visitors to five runs.
Cincinnati, who had come up short in each of the first four innings with runners on base, got on the board in the 5th. Dane Myers would get things moving with a 1-out walk. Five pitches later Matt McLain hit his first home run of the season with a 421-foot blast to center to make it a 5-2 ballgame. The next inning the Reds would tack on another run on a moonshot from Nathaniel Lowe just as the rain began at Great American Ball Park as he clubbed a 438-foot home run nearly up to the top of the stands in right field.
Following the 6th inning the game went into a rain delay. After one hour and 49 minutes the game resumed in a light drizzle. After Brock Burke tossed a hitless top of the 7th the Reds got their half of the inning started with a walk from Dane Myers to bring the tying run to the plate. And tying run it was as Matt McLain worked the count full before crushing his second homer of the game to even up the score at 5-5.
Elly De La Cruz would follow the home run with a single back up the middle, but Will Vest retired the next two hitters. Detroit then made a pitching change to bring in Brant Hurter to set up a lefty-on-lefty matchup with Nathaniel Lowe with De La Cruz on second. Lowe hit a routine grounder to second base but Javier Baez threw wide to first and the ball got away, allowing De La Cruz to race in and score to put Cincinnati in front and extend the inning. Two pitches later Tyler Stephenson lined a double into the left field corner to plate another run and put the Reds up by two runs.
Detroit wasn’t ready to roll over after losing the lead. Spencer Torkelson hit a 435-foot home run with one out in the 8th off of Tony Santillan. A single followed. Then with two outs Kerry Carpenter gave the Tigers the lead with a 2-run home run into the stands in right field.
With the score still 8-7 heading to the bottom of the 9th it was Kenley Jansen heading to the mound for Detroit as he looked to close the game out. To get that done, though, he was going to have to face the heart of the Reds lineup. After retiring the first two batters, Jansen battled with Spencer Steer before the Reds outfielder came through with a single to bring Nathaniel Lowe to the plate as the winning run with two outs. The winning run it was as he crushed his second home run of the night for a walk-off, 2-run home run.
Key Moment of the Game
Nathaniel Lowe’s walk-off home run. Runner up: The umpire deciding to wait out the rain so the game could continue.
Notes Worth Noting
Terry Francona said in the postgame press conference that Eugenio Suarez was going to be going to the 10-day injured list with an oblique strain. In a probably related move, JJ Bleday was removed from the game in Triple-A after the 5th inning.
The Cincinnati offense seems to be coming around a little bit over the last two weeks. On Friday night they had four players with multi-hit games and six players get on base at least twice.
Speaking of twice, Matt McLain and Nathaniel Lowe both homered twice. It was the first and second home run for each player on the year. Tough to imagine that’s happened all that often in the history of baseball.
The win kept the Reds in 1st place. They are a half-game up on the Cubs, with Chicago tied up with the Dodgers in the 8th inning out in Los Angeles.
Jose Trevino played a rehab game with Dayton tonight. He served as the Dragons catcher for the first five innings of the game and then exited the game as planned. He went 2-2 with a walk and he scored two runs.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Detroit Tigers vs Cincinnati Reds
Saturday April 24th, 7:15pm ET
Jack Flaherty (0-1, 3.47 ERA) vs Brady Singer (1-1, 5.32 ERA)
Best Reds win in a long long time.
Think Lowe will start tomorrow? 😉 His swing actually looks to be made for Great American Ball Park.
Sure hope so re Lowe. Keep Myers in, too. Looks like Bleday might be getting his chance, as well.
Pays off to watch the 2026 Reds games until the end. Wild, wild win.
Congrats to Lowe and McLain. Shoutout to Steer with a great at bat to get Lowe to the plate.
I fell asleep during the rain delay, dang it.
Think of one of the other outcomes: You could have woken up from this nap to a loss
True, not arguing that. But I’d have loved to have seen that one real time.
It’s real nice to have that kind of win with the morning coffee. Offensively please keep N. Lowe in the lineup when possible. I agree with Melvin that his bat seems to agree with GABP.
Reds continue to win games that look literally impossible to do it…Could that mean this team is different now? Last night fame seemed really like a movie script..
Lowe is showing up his value as a lefty batter…he’s looked as a good addition this offseason…
I think the “Redsgettingbetter”
Well done
It was the most electric win in a while.
It sure would energize the team if Mclain could return to some iteration of his former self.
Nate Lowe should just slide in to the DH role while Suarez mends.
His career splits vs LHP’s aren’t awful, .256/.335/.390
Credit to Steer for battling Jansen and not making the 27th out.
The broadcast said that Abbott made an arm angle change this season. They might want to abandon that.
McLain has always been the same player, he just had an unsustainable .385 BABIP in 2023 that made his numbers look great. If he can lower his K rate from 28-29% down into the lower 20’s, that would be an improvement that might be sustainable. He’s always had solid average power and a solid walk rate, but the power suffered last year coming off the shoulder injury.
Apparently Abbott’s more over the top now? Says starting from 2023 his arm angle has been 46º, 45º, 48º and this year 52º. I never would’ve noticed with the old eye test. That sounds bad for a guy who depends hugely on pitch tunnels. Back to the lab!
I think he’s also been pitching down in the zone a lot more, especially to RH.
That was Awesome!
Enjoy my hot takes.
Tom Reeves said a few weeks ago that Lowe should have been named the starter at first the day he was signed.He was and is right and not because of last night.Dude can hit and let me add again the right center gap is perfect for him.The first homer was a bomb and the second was a GABP wall scraper but they count just the same.Now I get it somebody has to set the bench to get him in the game but it must happen.Reds will win some close low scoring games because they can pitch but its games like last night the high scoring games that they must win their share of.With Geno out his at bats go to Lowe and thats good but we need Geno back as well.GO REDS
Starting to feel like 2023 when all our rookies kept coming from behind. They’re all more mature now…hope it doesn’t end like 2023 (sorry had to say that last part).
I’m sorry, but Steer is a player.
Hope Suarez isn’t out for long…obliques can be hard to heal.
As a very valuable veteran, give Suarez time to heal.
Wow, Refuse to Lose. Stupid Cubs have won 10 straight, but Reds have been playing exceptionally well too. Lowe could be very valuable with all of the RH bats in the lineup.If they can just stay above water until Lodolo and Greene come back, I think they will be in good shape. While Cubs and Reds have played well. Phillies and Mets have both stunk. The Central is far superior to the Eastern Division this year. Atlanta is already up by double digits on Phillies and Mets are not much better. Dodgers, Padres and Snakes are all good in West. I guess expect they will not slip in with 80 ish wins this year.
Surprise, Surprise, Surprise …
Expected to wake up to a shortened game. Watched the condensed innings I missed. What a comeback.
Doesn’t this victory extend their 1/2 run victory record to 11-0. I think one more ties the MLB record. Though it’s more fun to see them hit.
Yes
The best thing I have seen from the Reds is winning games all different ways – SP, RP, different hitters. Young players are showing improvement. Players rebounding from injuries. It is all adding up to a winning culture (thank you Tito). That culture is what carries a team to being successful.
+10000000
That’s what good teams do!
What a great at bat by Steer in the 9th down to one strike for the final out. Lowe and McLain carried the offensive, good to see other players coming around.
I will add last year making the playoffs has helped this core group. In Francona second year they are more disciplined on defense and running the bases. They seem to be drawing more walks.
While we dont see it,I do believe Francona as manager has brought a accountability aspect that was missing with previous manager.
Most of the coaches are the same. We can all say if a manager matter or not.
All I know is in his second year, Francona has this team more fundamental sound than in years past!
A lot of great “keys” pointed out….Lowe, Steer, umpire decision, McLain….
Lets not forget Pierce Johnson getting out of a bases loaded jam with no outs!
Pierce Johnson getting out of bases loaded no outs should get some recognition indeed.
The error by Baez gets honorable mention as well.
Caught the ball…easily but inexplicably threw it away. With 2 outs.
Elly scored the 6th run and Ty drove in Lowe next, for the 7th run.
He’s such a good defender, too. That was only his second appearance at second base this season, but still. It was about as routine of a play as one could expect and he just messed up.
Pitchers on both sides continued to throw fastball even though fastballs were crushed all game. Truly a home run derby and Reds had the last blast to win the game. Fun baseball.
Every now and then you get an incredible game like this. MM and Lowe both going deep twice! Reminds me of a game a few years ago when the Reds beat the Braves 11-10 with Elly hitting for the cycle and Joey, coming off the DL, to hit a bomb. Amazingly, in both games the Reds faced a 5-0 deficit. Crazy.
Was there that night,votto hit 2 bombs
For me biggest plus to come out of this game is Mclain not only hitting his first homers of the season but psychologically reminding him that he is a much better player than he has been in the last year or so.
We survived an inning of Nicolas (3 walks). Tito playing with fire with that guy. Hope that game gets MM going for good.