A wild game took place in Goodyear, Arizona on Thursday afternoon. Cincinnati led 6-1 after two innings but then found themselves down by five after the top of the 5th. The Reds would claw their way back before scoring four runs in the bottom of the 9th inning that was capped off by a walk-off home run by Rece Hinds to give them a win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Highlights
Los Angeles got on the board in the 1st inning after the first two runners reached base and then saw a runner come in to score on a sacrifice fly by former Reds utilityman Santiago Espinal. The Reds got that run back and more in their half of the inning. Matt McLain singled and then scored when Elly De La Cruz hit a 438-foot home run from the right side of the plate to put Cincinnati up 2-1. Spencer Steer would draw a 2-out walk later in the inning and then score when Will Benson inflicted some left-on-left damage with a 2-run home run of his own.
The Reds added to their lead in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Christian Encarnacion-Strand singled to begin the inning and then scored when Matt McLain crushed his 4th homer of the spring to make it 6-1. About five minutes later the Dodgers got both runs back as Emilio Pagan gave up back-to-back home runs to Max Muncy and Santiago Espinal to begin the 3rd. A couple of minutes later Los Angeles kept it going when Noah Miller crushed a 432-foot 2-run home run to bring his team within a run.
Tony Santillan took over to begin the 4th inning and he ran into plenty of troubles of his own. He walked two batters before facing off against former teammate Santiago Espinal with one out and two men on. Once again it was Espinal getting revenge on his previous club as he crushed another home run and put the Dodgers up 8-6. With two outs Santillan would walk his third batter of the inning and be replaced by Simon Miller, who got out of the inning with no further damage.
Connor Phillips didn’t have much better luck in the 5th inning. He started off the inning with a walk, then gave up a single, and an RBI double followed before another walk loaded the bases. The Dodgers then scored a run on a ground out and a sacrifice fly to put up a 4-spot and extend their lead to 11-6.
Cincinnati came to the plate in the bottom of the 5th inning and got themselves a bit of a rally going. Matt McLain led off with a bloop single into center and then Elly De La Cruz lined a hit back up the middle of his own. Two pitches later Nathaniel Lowe hit a ball 444 feet deep into left field for a 3-run homer to cut into the Los Angeles lead. The Reds would then load the bases on two walks and a hit batter and pick up a run on a ground out to cap off the inning and head to the 6th down by just one run.
The Dodgers would tack on a run in the 7th inning when Zach Maxwell allowed a walk and two singles as Los Angeles would pad their lead. They would pick up another run two innings later when Julian Aguiar gave up a solo homer to former Red Nick Senzel.
In the bottom of the 9th inning the Reds would bring the tying run to the plate after back-to-back walks began the inning. That brought Hector Rodriguez to the plate and after falling behind 0-2 he battled back to even up the count and just missed tying things up as he settled for a double off the warning track in deep right-center to drive in a run. That brought Rece Hinds to the plate and he didn’t fall just short as he hit a walk-off 3-run home run on a laser down the left field line.
You can see the box score for this game here.
News and Notes
Matt McLain went 3-3 with his 4th home run in six games this spring. He’s hitting an absurd .647 with three walks, one strikeout, and he’s slugging 1.412. Elly De La Cruz, Nathaniel Lowe, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand all went 2-3 in the game.
Julian Aguiar was the only Reds pitcher on the day to have more strikeouts than walks. He didn’t walk anyone and had four strikeouts in his 2.0 innings of relief.
Hagen Danner was the only pitcher for Cincinnati to record more than one out in the game and not give up a run. He tossed a perfect 6th inning.
The two teams combined to hit 10 home runs, with each club having five of them. The two teams also had more walks from their hitters than they had strikeouts.
Cincinnati hits the road for Friday’s game. They’ll be the visiting team in a contest against the San Francisco Giants. This will be radio only. First pitch is set for 3:05pm ET. Scheduled to pitch for the Reds in this one: Andrew Abbott, Sam Moll, Yunior Marte, Tejay Antone, and Lyon Richardson.