The St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds combined for 10 runs in the ninth inning Thursday at Great American Ball Park.
That late-game explosion almost never happened.
Had Dane Myers made a routine putout in left-center field, the Reds would have won 5-4. Instead, Myers dropped the final out amid the sunny afternoon, the Cardinals scored the game-tying and go-ahead runs in the immediate aftermath of that error and St. Louis poured on four additional runs before holding on for dear life in the bottom half of the frame to secure a 10-9 victory.
Cincinnati, which seized its one-run lead in the sixth inning with a Matt McLain grand slam, nearly came all the way back in a potentially redemptive bottom of the ninth. The Reds rallied furiously, stacking four runs, all with two outs.
Advertisement
Fittingly, the bases were loaded again for McLain. That time, the second baseman couldn’t replicate his mid-game heroics.
He lined out, and the Cardinals escaped with a nail-biting win that was a microcosm of a back-and-forth five-game set between the NL Central foes. A series that began with the teams splitting a doubleheader that finished in extras delivered a deservingly chaotic ending in Cincinnati.
The Cardinals (66-63) took Games 1, 3 and 5 of the series. The Reds (61-67), last in a crowded division, wound up winning only three of the eight games on their homestand.
Myers’ blunder occurred while he was trying to track down a fly ball that Cardinals rookie standout JJ Wetherholt hit the opposite way. Myers appeared to call for it as Reds left fielder TJ Friedl set up to make the catch in the face of the sun.
Advertisement
Friedl, a defensive substitution who entered the game in the eighth inning, stayed put initially. He didn’t move until Myers was a few steps from colliding with him. Then, still veering farther toward left, Myers tried to snag the ball. It ended up bouncing off his glove and to the wall. By the time he fired a throw to the infield, two Cardinals runs had already scored, and Wetherholt was at second.
Up next was St. Louis’ corresponding flurry, which featured RBI singles from Alec Burleson and José Fermín.
Cincinnati responded. Down to their final out, the Reds got a pinch-hit single from Eugenio Suárez. That scored one run. A Sal Stewart single, following an Elly De La Cruz walk, plated another pair. Soon came two more walks. The second brought home De La Cruz and kept the bases loaded, with a potential walk-off win in sight.
That’s where Cincinnati’s rebuttal came to a painful end, and the Reds’ home crowd had to stomach the second of two agonizing victory teases.
