The Cincinnati Reds trailed 4-1 after the 1st inning but they battled back to take the lead in the 6th inning. The bullpen then shut things down from there as they picked up a win and took the series over the Atlanta Braves.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (74-85) | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| Atlanta Braves (93-66) | 6 | 12 | 0 |
| W: Phillips (2-0) L: Smith-Shawver (0-3) SV: Pagan (25) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
It only took four pitches into the game for Cincinnati to take a lead. Carlos Jorge took a fastball in the middle of the zone and sent it into the seats in right field for his first big league home run, making it 1-0 for the Reds early on.
Atlanta grabbed the lead in the bottom of the inning after the Braves had two straight singles to start the inning before Matt Olson hit a sacrifice fly to tie things up and Michael Harris II doubled in a run. Muaricio Dubon then followed up with another single. Ozzie Albies then picked up an infield single that saw Brady Singer collide with Sal Stewart as Stewart fielded the ball, but replay showed Albies hit the ball twice and should have been ruled a dead ball/foul ball. The play is not reviewable, though, and it remained a single. Singer then walked the next batter before a second sacrifice fly in the inning plated another run to make it 4-1.
The Reds got one of those runs back in the top of the 2nd. Hector Rodriguez doubled with two outs to keep the inning alive. Matt McLain then came through with an RBI single back up the middle to bring Rodriguez in. They would keep beating up on Tyler Mahle in the top of the 3rd. Elly De La Cruz crushed a 1-out solo home run – his 30th homer of the year. Sal Stewart followed with a single and Tyler Stephenson walked to move him up to second. Eugenio Suarez then singled with two outs and brought both runners in to cap off the 3-run inning that put Cincinnati up 5-4.
Brady Singer couldn’t hold onto the newfound lead for very long. He gave up a 2-out, game-tying solo home run to Austin Riley in the bottom half of the inning.
Zach McCambley took over for the Reds in the bottom of the 4th inning and retired the first four Braves hitters he faced. But he gave up a 1-out single in the 5th and then a 2-out RBI single to Mike Yastrzemski that put Atlanta up 6-5. Connor Phillips was then called on to come out of the bullpen and he walked the first two batters he saw on four pitches each, loading up the bases. He would strand everyone when he got Drake Baldwin to line out to center.
Atlanta brought in AJ Smith-Shawver to start the top of the 6th inning and he got himself into trouble when he hit Eugenio Suarez with one out. That set things up for Hector Rodriguez who hit a hanging curveball 423 feet and deep into the stands in right field for a go-ahead 2-run homer.
Connor Phillips returned to the mound for the 6th and tossed a shutout frame. Tejay Antone and Brock Burke followed with a scoreless 7th and 8th as Cincinnati held onto a 1-run lead. That led to Emilio Pagan looking for a save in the 9th. Michael Harris II singled on an infield chopper to start the inning and then took second base on a sacrifice bunt. He would then move up to third on a wild pitch. Pagan would strike out Ozzie Albies for out number two. A fly out to right center ended the game as the Reds took their second game of the series to grab a series victory.
Key Moment of the Game
The final out of the game that saw Atlanta strand the tying run at third base.
Notes Worth Noting
Elly De La Cruz is now sitting at 30 home runs and 29 steals. He could have three games to get one steal in the final series of the year in Toronto.
Hector Rodriguez was the only Red to have two hits in the game. He doubled and homered while scoring two runs and driving two runs in.
Brock Burke’s shutout inning lowered his ERA to 2.30 on the year. He’s done that while making 77 appearances and throwing 74.1 innings.
The Reds went 2-3 with runners in scoring position in the game. Atlanta went 3-10 and they stranded 10.
Carlos Jorge grounded out in the 3rd inning. On the play he recorded the fastest sprint speed by a Reds player all year at 31.6 feet/second. He bested his own mark from two days ago that was the previous high for the team. Despite not joining the team until September 4th and not playing every day, he now has 8 of the 10 fastest sprint speeds among Reds players this season. Jorge also had 11 put outs in the game. That’s the most by a Reds outfielder in a 9-inning game since 1900.
Since the Reds opted to not trade Brady Singer and rumors were that they had plans to offer him a qualifying offer he made 10 starts with an 8.39 ERA. His fastball peaked at 91.0 MPH in this game and didn’t even average 90.
Ke’Bryan Hayes went 0-4. He’s now 2-31 in September and is hitting .141 on the year.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Toronto Blue Jays
Friday, September 25, 7:07 PM EDT
Nick Lodolo (3-6, 5.04 ERA) vs TBA
Where to start. 6 IP, only 1 R by bullpen. Very good night by BP overall. 3 HR by Reds, who now have 211 HR for the season.
Good team W. The games didn’t mean much in the standings, but the Reds beat an arguably better team 2 out of 3 on their turf.
Happy the Reds won and took the series but home runs mean nothing if we’re still a last place team. Runs and run efficiency are what matters.
Then why was everyone lambasting the front office for not getting a big bopper who would hit a bunch of home runs? The Reds have a bunch of guys hitting a bunch of home runs, top five in the league, but suddenly home runs don’t matter?
The Reds need guys who get on base and cause havoc. Which is the winningest team in the division? Once again facts get in the way of a widespread theory.
The Braves hit 17 balls over 100 mph, but it wasn’t enough. Reds hung on to take the series.
Reds are now 39-6 when Pagan pitches. He is 25/28 on SVO.
Reds are now 51-26 when Burke pitches. He has pitched in 77 games (most in NL and most he has EVER pitched in MLB career). He has 23 “holds” on the year.
For one of my college stats classes, I analyzed team stats using the ones available on the USA Today Sports page. I noticed that saves had the highest correlation with team wins among all of the stats tracked by USA Today and concluded that a strong bullpen was the most important part of a Major League Baseball team. It was humbling when my instructor pointed out that the fact that a “Save” is the only counting stat that can only occur with a “Win” may be skewing my analysis. So, yes, the team will have a pretty good record on the days that Pagan pitches since he is almost exclusively used only when the Reds have a lead in the ninth inning. Similarly, their record should be pretty good when their best setup man is used, since he is also used when the team has a lead late in the game. Pagan is 5-1 with 25 saves. By definition, the Reds have one at least 30 games and lost one of the games he’s pitched. Considering that I thought I was a pretty avid fan when I turned my turkey of an assignment in, I was a little embarrassed when my professor politely pointed out that the correlation I had so proudly identified wasn’t very helpful in establishing causality. W/L record on days certain players play may be interesting, but for it to mean something informative, it’s going to take a deeper dive into exactly how a player positively impacted the game.
Reds are 14-3 when Pagan pitches without SVO.
And water is wet.
That is quite a stat…17 balls hit over 100mph. 6 for 16 with three singles, two doubles, a home run, and a sac fly on those 17. Lots of hard hit outs. Tough night for the Braves. That’s baseball for ya.
Hard outs still count as outs.
No way!
DWCT@. Nice trivia. Stat of the day stat of the day
We all complain about Hayes, and rightfully so. But my goodness, I’ve never seen a proven major leaguer decline this much. His 2025 batting average was about 60% better than it is in 2026 (and 2025 wasn’t good). Is it physical? Mental? Does he not respond to coaching? My concern is for Hayes himself. Hopefully he can right the ship next year.
“Ke’Bryan Hayes went 0-4. He’s now 2-31 in September and is hitting .141 on the year.”
hahaha You had to put that in there. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating him getting over .150. Now we’ll be celebrating if he stays over .140. 😀
I reiterate I like that guy personally. It’s just the most ridiculous situation I’ve ever seen in baseball at least in recent memory.
Cool for EDLC and #30 HR. Let’s get him #30 SB. 🙂
Curiosity got me after the game. I was trying to remember his last hit and couldn’t. Then I looked at the game logs and gasped.
smh hahaha 😀 Ooooh My.
Hayes had no strikeouts! He made contact with the ball four different times. It’s a strange situation.
“Hayes had no strikeouts! He made contact with the ball four different times. It’s a strange situation.”
Yes but unfortunately his contact is seemingly becoming weaker and weaker. He’s trying but I suspect his chronic bad back is getting the better of him.
Arismendy Alcántara in 2017. 70 G played.
BA .171 with 12 OPS+ and 38 K vis-a-vis 2 BB in 108 PA and 70 games played.
Arismendy Alcantara’s OPS+ of 12 led to his August DFA and outright assignment to the minors, spelling the end of his MLB career.
I wonder what his salary was. Did he win any Gold Gloves? Even one?
The Reds have had subpar offensive players before and will again.
I will say he made a great play on a hard hit ball down the line late in the game for the inning’s final out. Not sure if Suarez or Brito would have made that.
“I wonder what his salary was. Did he win any Gold Gloves? Even one?”
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/alcanar01.shtml
Hayes has had a much more successful career and has (or at least has had) an elite tool. Alcántara was a journeyman utility player whose primary asset was his versatility. With one-fifth the plate appearances of Hayes, they have little in common. However, you introduced Arismendy Alcántara into this thread. This is your strawman argument, not anyone else’s.
@Melvin. Crazy! Celebrating a .150 average is wild but you’re right! I’ll also put McLain trying to get to .190 on the season. Ouch for both offensively. Just plain bad.
3 things staying with me from this game: Elly 30th HR, HRod 2 run HR, and Phillips throwing 9 or 10 straight balls (and ending up with the W). Brewers would send Phillips back down to minor even though there are only 3 games left in the season. What Brewers manager said about expecting his pitchers to throw the ball over the plate echos loud and clear in my head right now.
Best stat of the night: adding another win to Reds record when Hayes started.
Nice! Haha
They would not have won without Hayes in the lineup to field that one routine ground ball.
Paul is still alive and living in Virginia. His mom Laverne died last year, and he came in for her funeral (obviously). Fort Mitchell and Blessed Sacrament folks stay in touch.
He was a LOOGY back in the day.
My COF teammate (Paul Hoppenjans) in Knothole back in early 1960s threw 32 straight balls. His grandparents were in town to see him play. We were way ahead so Coach Wurtz let him pitch. I relieved him and got some strikes and outs.
Paul is out here catching strays for no reason!
Better stats. Reds are 39-6 when Pagan pitches. Reds are 51-26 when Burke pitches.
After throwing 8 straight balls, Phillips threw 23 of the next 26 pitches as strikes. I’m glad he got the win.
Yeah, I recall Thom B. always saying how Bryan Price wouldn’t tolerate walks until he looked out there and saw that all his pitchers were worse than the guy who was supposed to pitch tomorrow. If Phillips can’t throw strikes after all this time, he should not be on the roster. But he is and that’s who’s going to pitch.
I listen to Thom on WLW 700 in the AM on my way to and from breakfast.
Best stat of the year as the Red’s disappointing season slowly comes to an end.
The two young guys, Jorge and Rodriguez, looked good, except for the last catch of the game (by Jorge…:) ). Rodriguez wanted to take the ball away from him.
Give them some time to catch up with ML pitching.
I saw that. It’s hard to believe something very similar happened again in a relatively short amount of time. Jorge took like he should have.
Rodriguez and Myers both seem a little scatterbrained defensively at times.
I played center field in my day and the rule of thumb was simply this: If the centerfielder calls the ball, get the hell out of the way. These guys at the professional level don’t seem to know that?
Two rookies may not.
@oldtimer I was 12.
Precocious, then.
@green Precocious? My coach instructed me in that lesson at that age and it never changed. Center fielder gets the call.
Yeah, that is pretty much the rule of thumb from little league on up. Some people seem to think a rookie just forgets everything he ever learned.
I feel like Suarez has actually been decent overall, considering his injury as well. If I were a team and had a pretty solid Offense overall, I’d consider him as DH next year. He’s still a threat as like a 5-6 hitter with good hitters around him.
De La Cruz was having a good year for his standards, but turned it into a very good year overall I’d say. Not quite to the level of a awesome year, but very good.
It’s arguably the 2nd best year of any player in the National League…. If that doesn’t qualify as an awesome year then I’m just not sure what does.
Best I can find is that there are only 7 SS (two did it twice) with 30 HR/30 SB seasons in MLB history. No franchise has ever done it twice. Elly would make that go away with 1 more SB.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CIN/leaders_bat_50_season.shtml Elly #26 tied with Larkin (1995 MVP season) in terms of WAR.
If Elly stays healthy, he will supplant Larkin as best Reds SS ever.
Correcting my error. Larkin and Dat Dude both had 30/30 for Reds.
The problem with Suarez is that he didn’t start hitting until the Reds were effectively out of the race. Sadak has mentioned that he’s a very slow starter (I’m not checking that) and, if true, it would seem to seriously limit his value. There are routine ground balls, and there are meaningless hits….
Singer vs. Mahle… could have been anything after the 1st, and then the Reds just came back and took the lead by the 3rd, 5-4. Then it was a parade from the Reds bullpen. The Braves went up by one 6-5, only to have that lead erased by a Hector Rodriguez homerun with one on in the 6th. That 7-6 lead would hold up the rest of the way, 4 innings of relief work, with the Braves mashing the ball throughout. Singer’s last start pretty much showed he was done for the year, and maybe his career with the Reds. We know where our strengths and weaknesses are at this point. And we know why we ended up in last place in our division. Great game by our guys today !
I’d say Kee-bry is due for a breakout game, huh?
If Francona opts out after 2027, look for Reds to bring back Bryan Price as manager. He’s used to managing when Reds lose a lot.
I would rather have Jim Riggleman to be honest lol
Riggleman may have been a better choice as Reds manager.
Nice comeback against a good team for the Reds. Now, let’s hope Burns, Stewart, and EDLC don’t ask for baseball asylum in Canada as we close out the season, given the revelation of the true culprit behind the Reds’ inability to stick with a coherent strategy for the last 10+ years.
Interesting stat.. the reds only have 15 triples this year. The 76 team had 63!
The game is different today.
Even the best team in MLB for triples, the Arizona Diamondbacks, only have 41 at the time of writing.
I saw the D Backs get two triples yesterday during my first game at Coors Field.
So is the stadium. Not that it is Coors or PacBell (er Oracle Park), but Great America was not designed for triples.
No ivy, no weird angles in the wall, no high fence or wall to play racquetball ball off of
The stadium was designed for left handed power hitters which the Reds had at the time. Just like now they had no current vision as to how best to play the ballpark for the next 30-40 years.
Since it is major undertaking to move the fence back in right center to right field, I think the Reds should raise the wall some, and maybe get some of those triples. Probably be a fairly reasonable fix.
With 3 games left, I’d like to see the Reds make a push to finish “only” 10 games under .500 at 76-86. They’d have to go 2-1 in Toronto to do it.
It’s pretty meaningless, but it’s something to strive for, right?
Hello, you play to win the game! (Coach HE)
And the last time I read it, David Bell was working for the Blue Jays.
If you can find it, the last game of the 2012 season, the last year the Astros were in the NL and they were tanking against the Cubs, also tanking. It was Bryan LaHair who hit a walkoff single for the Cubbos and both teams ended with 100-some losses. The players mobbed the guy at 2nd base for having won the game. The fans 27K (typically Cubbos fans) were ecstatic. I don’t think the players ever quit caring.
Here is the box. I have previously seen the video.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN201210030.shtml
Hey CI3J.
Well there is the fact that the worse the record the higher the chances of getting a good draft slot. Hoping to get swept by the Jays anyone?
I’d like to see them win as many as possible but at the same time I don’t want to see the very rich Mets win fewer games than them. Currently the Reds (7th position) have 5.5% chance of winning the top pick while the Mets (6th position) have a 7.5% chance of winning the top pick. In fact, if the Reds/Mets tie in the standings the Mets still get the better odds because they had a worse record last year! Alas, the Mets play Nationals the last 3 games so if the Mets do win more games than Reds the Nationals probably then fall the 6th position instead. Very high odds I’d say that the Reds settle for the 7th best lottery odds. Let’s hope the lottery balls are kind to the Reds, after all the Guardians jumped from 18th position to first in the past.
Is Kebryan having the worst offensive year in MLB history for someone with over 200 ABs? Seems like he must be close, given his ineptitude at the plate. He’s managed to drive in 4 other runners all year, given that over 50% of his RBIs are himself on home runs. Although maybe that’s not entirely his fault, given that the rest of the bottom of the lineup doesn’t get on base much, either.
He’d be a liability on a slow-pitch beer league softball team.
Friedl had lower WAR. Chris Davis (Orioles) had -3.3 WAR in 2018.
But doesn’t WAR take defense into consideration? I’m not an expert on advanced stats. Just genuinely curious where his offensive output sits historically.
Reds could have found a kid from the DSL who could play 3B well enough to fill that gap, and it would have cost them a little meal money and some walkin-around cash.
Nice to go to bed satisfied with a win. Some great stuff from the Boyz last night. Elly continues to cement his future and what he and Boras will ask for in his Arb1 hearing. Let’s just hope we play enough in 2027.
Go North, young men. Three more left. Let’s sweep those Jays.
Elly, De. La. Cruz. My. Goodness.
OTD in 1974, the first ever Tommy John surgery was performed by Dr Frank Jobe on Tommy John. It worked. He finished with 288 W (most of which came after the surgery).
Elly was 29-29 before the game and I thought it would be easier to get a base steal first than the homer…I wish he will get on base several times this weekend to look for the 30th bag stolen…
What a night by Jorge and H-Rod..Would the Reds have a pair of additional good players on them for next seasons?
Since the last 3 games mean nothing as far as playoffs, I’d like to see all the pitches called completely by ABS. No catcher/batter challenges needed, just an accurate call on ever pitch. I’ve seen too many ABs turn on an erroneous call. Chris Sales’ 200th K of the season vs Sal Stewart was a ball.