Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart scored on a pair of wild pitches in the eighth inning to help the Cincinnati Reds rally past the visiting Athletics 5-4 Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series in Cincinnati.
The Athletics, who lost their sixth straight and their 22nd in 26 games, were nursing a one-run lead entering the bottom of the eighth when their defense imploded in ugly fashion. The Reds scored the tying and go-ahead runs without the benefit of a hit.
Reliever and loser Hogan Harris (3-1) walked De La Cruz and Stewart to begin the eighth. It appeared the Athletics would escape with two outs, but a sacrifice fly sent De La Cruz to third and Stewart to second when no one covered the second base bag.
In all, Harris walked three batters and threw two wild pitches, while reliever Elvis Alvarado also threw a wild pitch in the eighth. Julian Garcia (2-2) pitched a perfect eighth inning with two strikeouts to earn the win, while Emilio Pagan tossed a scoreless ninth for his 12th save in 15 opportunities.
One day after surviving the MLB trade deadline and remaining in Cincinnati, Brady Singer started and went six solid innings, giving the Reds another quality start, his sixth since June 1. Singer allowed three runs on five hits over six innings. The right-hander struck out six and walked three.
Singer’s strikeout of Lawrence Butler to open the game was the 900th of his career. Butler also struck out against Pagan to end the game.
Tyler Soderstrom doubled to open the fourth and scored on a one-out single from Jeff McNeil. The Athletics got to Singer for two more runs in the fifth when Jacob Wilson doubled off Singer down the left field line for a 3-0 lead.
The Reds rallied against starter J.T. Ginn in the fifth to tie the game with three runs. Top prospect Hector Rodriguez was called up to make his MLB debut, starting in right field and batting seventh. He walked to open the fifth and scored along with Matt McLain on a two-run single to left by De La Cruz.
Rodriguez finished 0-for-2 with the walk and a run scored.
–Field Level Media
