The Reds and the White Sox played a back-and-forth game in Goodyear, Arizona on Saturday night. Cincinnati would eventually come out on top, winning the game over Chicago in the bottom of the 9th inning on a 2-out, walk-off grand slam by P.J. Higgins in an 11-7 win.
The Highlights
The Cincinnati Reds didn’t waste too much time to get a lead in this one as TJ Friedl led off the bottom of the 1st inning with a double and then came around to score on a single back up the middle by Sal Stewart. The lead didn’t last too long as former Red Austin Hays singled in the 2nd and then scored when Everson Pereira hit a 2-run home run to put the White Sox into the lead.
Chicago would extend their lead in the top of the 4th inning with a little help from the Reds defense. Sal Stewart’s fielding error with one out led to an extended inning that saw Andrew Abbott give up a single after the inning should have been over and then follow it up with a 10-pitch walk that led to him throwing 32 pitches in the inning before being removed and replaced by reliever Jimmy Romano. He came in and gave up a 2-run single as the score jumped to 4-1.
Will Benson helped the Reds get one of those runs back when he hit a home run that may have scraped the moon. The solo shot had a launch angle of 44° and came off of his bat at 110.8 MPH. In the 2025 regular season only 12 home runs had a higher launch angle than that (there were 5650 home runs hit last year).
Andrew Abbott returned to the mound to start the 5th. He would give up a leadoff double and see the run come around to score on a ground out three pitches later as the White Sox extended their lead to 5-2.
The Reds offense put together a rally in their half of the 5th. TJ Friedl and Matt McLain began the inning with singles. Both would score when Elly De La Cruz tripled into right field. Sal Stewart would hit a grounder to the pitcher and De La Cruz was caught in a rundown that eventually led to him being tagged out, but Stewart made his way around to third on the play and then scored on a wild pitch to tie the game up. A walk preceded a home run by Jose Trevino that broke the tie and put Cincinnati in the lead by a score of 7-5.
That’s where the score remained until the top of the 8th. Sam Moll took over to begin the inning. He would give up three singles in the inning with the final one being a 2-out, 2-run line drive into center that tied the game up at 7-7.
With the game tied up in the bottom of the 9th inning the Reds got a leadoff single from Nathaniel Lowe, who was then pinch run for by Yeycol Soriano. Ruben Ibarra then drew a walk and was also pinch run for to put the winning run in scoring position. Esmith Pineda laid down a sacrifice bunt to move both runners up a base. A strikeout would follow, but then Austin Hendrick was hit by a pitch to load the bases. That left the game in the hands of P.J. Higgins. He worked the count full before fouling off the 6th pitch and then Higgins hit a walk-off grand slam to win the game.
You can see the box score for this game here.
News and Notes
TJ Friedl went 2-3 with a double and two runs scored. Jose Trevino also had two hits, picking up a homer and a single while driving in two. Elly De La Cruz tripled and walked.
Andrew Abbott’s final line is strange as I type this. It currently sits at 4.2 innings with five earned runs, a walk, and five strikeouts. But two of those runs came in the 4th inning when his inning began like this: Strikeout, fielding error, forceout on an attempted double play that was a bang-bang play. Without the error the inning would have ended there as the forceout would have just been a relatively routine grounder to shortstop to be the third out. Instead the inning kept going and then two runs score before the actual final out of the inning was recorded.
Perhaps because it was a forceout the rules are different on what should or shouldn’t be an earned run after that. Seems silly. Or maybe it’s a mistake in the box score that will later be corrected. Either way, Abbott’s line looks worse than it otherwise would or should had that error not occurred.
The Reds had four batted balls in the game that were over 109 MPH. Elly De La Cruz (112.4), Will Benson (110.8), Will Banfield (109.7), and Sal Stewart (109.1) all reached the mark on the night.
The Cincinnati Reds will play their final game in Arizona on Sunday afternoon. They’ll still have two games in Milwaukee on Monday and Tuesday that are exhibitions against the Brewers, but their game against the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday is the last one in Goodyear. The game will be available to watch as well as to listen in on the radio. First pitch is scheduled for 3:05pm ET. Scheduled to pitch for the Reds: Nick Lodolo, Graham Ashcraft, and Connor Phillips.