Cincinnati Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson destroyed a ball for a grand slam in the Bottom of the 1st inning tonight in Great American Ball Park, the blast giving the Reds an early 5-0 lead. This, of course, came just a day after they were run ragged by a rebuilding Washington Nationals club 10-4 in the series opener at home, and it sure looked like the lineup – revamped by manager Terry Francona before the game – was finally there to put its foot down.
About that…
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Despite handing the ball over to Nick Lodolo, who struck out the side in a brilliant Top of the 1st inning, the Reds completely imploded. Lodolo fumbled the lead almost as quickly as it was given to him, allowing a 4-spot in the Top of the 2nd fueled by a 2-run homer from Keibert Ruiz and later yielding a game-tying run in the Top of the 3rd to make this game square.
The Reds and Nats forged a stalemate for awhile thereafter, but the sad trombone fireworks were hardly over. Elly De La Cruz led off the Bottom of the 7th in a 6-6 game with a double, yet the Reds failed to drive him in. Then, in the Bottom of the 9th, Matt McLain similarly led off with a double, only for the Reds to a) botch a bunt attempt and b) also fail to get him around to score.
That sent the game into extra innings, where the fail horn kept right on a-honkin’.
Tony Santillan immediately served up a meatball to Daylen Lile, who smoked it for what feels like the 77th homer of the series for the Louisville, KY native. Santillan has now allowed 7 homers already this season in just 17.0 IP, and that’s going to make for a bad time for all parties involved.
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Down 8-6 in the Bottom of the 10th, things once again got spicy for all the wrong reasons. Spencer Steer, who’s been mashing lately, worked a deep count off lefty reliever PJ Poulin before smashing a 102.7 mph laser that seemed to be a magnet to the yellow line atop the wall in LF. Before we had the chance to see if it was a homer, a double, an odd-bounce triple, or god forbid an inside-the-park homer, a fan reached over and caught the ball and the umpires rendered it a dead ball double.
Replay could not overturn it, and what could have been the game-tying play – or a play that left a Red on 3B instead of 2B – was undone, and Cincinnati remained trailing at 8-7.
Despite Stephenson working a walk, Blake Dunn couldn’t pull off the magnificent this evening on the game’s final play, and the Reds fell in the kind of frustrating fashion that make you despise all fashions altogether.
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