Buoyed by a come-from-behind win in the opener of their three-game road series against the Chicago White Sox, the Cincinnati Reds will look to make it two in a row on Wednesday.
The Reds were down 4-0 after four innings on Tuesday before Eugenio Suarez got his team on the board with a home run in the top of the fifth. They were stymied by Chicago starter Sean Burke, who held them to that lone run on three hits with no walks and eight strikeouts before exiting after seven innings.
With Burke out of the way, the bats went to work in the eighth and Cincinnati tied the game 4-4 to force extra innings. Then in the 10th, Elly De La Cruz’s sacrifice fly drove in automatic runner Matt McLain to give the visitors their only lead in the 5-4 win.
“You just keep playing,” Cincinnati manager Terry Francona said. “We just came off a series where we didn’t. So you keep playing because later they make you go home. Sometimes some good things happen.”
The Reds will be hoping for more positive happenings as they try to string together wins and climb into a wild-card spot. Tuesday’s triumph kept them 5 1/2 games back of the San Diego Padres for the third and final wild-card berth in the National League.
Rhett Lowder (4-7, 5.26 ERA) will start Wednesday for the Reds, his first appearance against the White Sox. The 24-year-old right-hander is coming off a 3-2 victory against the Athletics on Aug. 5, giving up two runs on four hits in six innings for his first win since April 20.
“When you’re kind of not helping the team win, you want to try to be perfect every time you go out there,” Lowder said after that outing. “I just had to be like, ‘You’re not going to climb out of the hole you dug yourself in earlier by just being perfect.’ It puts so much more pressure on yourself.”
The White Sox, meanwhile, will be looking to bounce back as they try to put more distance between them and the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central. The loss combined with Detroit’s win against the Cleveland Guardians narrowed Chicago’s lead atop the division to just 2 1/2 games over the resurgent Tigers.
After building up their four-run lead on Tuesday, the White Sox managed just one baserunner the rest of the way, with Munetaka Murakami connecting for a double in the eighth.
“Really good upfront,” Chicago manager Will Venable said of the offense. “… Obviously we were able to put some really good swings on (Reds starting pitcher Nick Lodolo) and then just couldn’t get anything cooking after that.”
It’s been a struggle for the White Sox of late, who are 3-6 in their past nine games and 6-8 over their past 14. Two of those wins came in succession on the weekend against the Guardians. Chicago lost the first game of that series, too.
Luis Castillo (3-9, 5.30) will be on the mound for Chicago. It will be the third career appearance for the right-hander against his former team, going 0-2 with a 7.15 ERA while allowing nine runs on 11 hits in 11 1/3 innings.
–Field Level Media
