There was ample action in Great American Ball Park on Saturday, and the end result was a 6-5 victory by the Cincinnati Reds over the Boston Red Sox.
Dane Myers swatted a single over the shortstop – a replacement shortstop, I should add – in the Bottom of the 11th inning for his first hit, RBI, and Gatorade bath as a member of the Reds, as that was good enough to plate TJ Friedl from 2B and end the game. For that he not only gets mentioned in his first recap here at Red Reporter, but also takes home Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game honors.
How this game got there, though, was a bit of a see-saw.
Cincinnati jumped on Boston early as former Red Sonny Gray struggled early, needing over 30 pitches just to make it out of the Bottom of the 1st. The top of the Cincinnati order got on, got over, and scored twice in the game’s initial frame, and the early damage was enough to limit Gray to just 4 IP before exiting having allowed 3 ER overall.
Cincinnati held an early 3-0 lead and later a 4-1 score, though Brady Singer ran into trouble in the Top of the 4th and allowe another pair of Boston runs before exiting himself after just 4.0 IP. Boston then began to chip away at Cincinnati’s bullpen as just about everyone they have down there got in on the action, including a Wilyer Abreu homer off Emilio Pagan in the Top of the 9th to tie the score at 5 each and send the game into extras.
Pagan, for the record, came on in the 8th to get out of a jam created by Tony Santillan, and his second inning of work wasn’t quite so effective.
Elly De La Cruz socked a solo homer, as did Sal Stewart for the Reds first round-trippers of the season. Matt McLain had himself a day with a trio of hits and a pair of walks, and the heart of the Cincinnati lineup is looking mighty tasty to begin the year.
Eugenio Suarez even picked up his first ’hit’ and ribbie of the season with a dribbler back to Gray early that scored McLain when the veteran righty couldn’t get the ball to the plate quick enough.
All told, it was an entertaining day at GABP as the Reds picked up their first win of the season.
Other Notes
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The ABS system got a workout with the erratic (at best) CB Bucknor behind the plate. The Reds had 6 (six!) correct challenges that overturned calls, Boston blew through theirs early, and shortstop Trevor Story (and manager Alex Cora) eventually got tossed by Bucknor at the end of the Top of the 8th after another one of his questionable calls. Story fanned 4 times on the day.
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Sal Stewart’s homer wasn’t all he did on the day, as he also added an RBI single and walked. The kid’s a machine in the making and the Reds should sign him to a 15 year contract yesterday.
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Boston is set to start lefty Connelly Early tomorrow, so I’d anticipate Myers getting his first start of the year in that one. Rhett Lowder will toe the rubber for the Reds in the rubber match, with first pitch set for 1:40 PM ET.
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