The Cincinnati Reds kept their winning ways going on Monday night as they began a series in Miami. Brandon Williamson had the best start of his career and the bullpen took care of the best as the Reds topped the Marlins 2-0 and extended their winning streak to four games.
Cincinnati had an early opportunity to grab the lead in this one as TJ Friedl singled to start the game and then Matt McLain walked to put two on with no outs. But the Reds couldn’t take advantage of it as Elly De La Cruz lined out and then a double play ended the inning.
The game stayed scoreless until the 4th inning. De La Cruz doubled with one out and then came in to score when Sal Stewart lined a single back up the middle to bring him in and get some cheers from his hometown crowd in the process.
Brandon Williamson was cruising through the first four innings. In the 5th inning he helped himself out a bit, with an assist from Matt McLain when the lefty tried to snag a hard comebacker behind his back and got a piece of it with his glove but it ricocheted to his left and McLain made the adjustment and was able to field it in time to throw out the runner to end the inning as Cincinnati held on to a 1-0 lead.
The next inning saw the Marlins get their best chance of the game to put a run on the board. With two outs Williamson left a fastball a little too much in the zone and Agustin Ramirez hit the ball deep into right field. Will Benson made a leaping attempt at the wall, but the ball hit the top of the wall and bounced back into the field as Ramirez hustled his way to third base for what was later confirmed by replay as a triple. Williamson came back to strike out Jakob Marsee to strand Ramirez and keep Miami scoreless.
The Reds lefty returned to the mound for the bottom of the 7th. He’d give up a leadoff single, but rebounded with a strikeout and a fly out to center. But after 93 pitches Terry Francona headed to the mound to make a pitching change and called on Brock Burke to try and get the final out of the inning. He did just that, striking out Xavier Edwards on five pitches to keep the visiting team up 1-0 heading into the 8th.
The lead didn’t stay 1-0 for very long. Tyler Stephenson and Janson Junk battled for six pitches to start the top of the 8th and Junk hung a breaking ball that was about as middle of the plate as you can make it and Stephenson pulled it into the Marlins bullpen in left field to tack on an insurance run. Tony Santillan worked around a walk in the bottom of the frame to keep a 2-run lead.
After the Reds put up a zero at the plate in the top of the 9th they sent Emilio Pagan to the mound to try and seal the win. He got the first out of the inning on a foul ball that was caught by Matt McLain just before he made contract with the net and Sal Stewart. Two groundouts to shortstop followed up as Cincinnati won and moved to 7-3 to begin the season.
Key Moment of the Game
There are a few options here but we’re going to give it to the hometown kid Sal Stewart for his RBI single in the 4th inning that put the Reds on the board and it turned out to be the only run that they needed.
Notes Worth Noting
Brandon Williamson fired 6.2 shutout innings on the night. That matched a career high for innings pitched in a game – both coming back in 2023. One of those two was also against the Marlins. Neither was a shutout performance, though, as he gave up one and two earned in those two.
Sal Stewart’s RBI single means he’s been on base in nine of the Reds 10 games this season.
Elly De La Cruz extended his hitting streak to seven games. he’s also been on base in nine of the Reds 10 games.
Both Brock Burke and Tony Santillan kept their ERA’s at 0.00 on the year.
The Cincinnati pitching staff has allowed one run in the last three games. The offense has scored exactly two runs in each of those games, but it’s been enough. This was the third shutout win of the season for the Reds.
Sal Stewart’s dad was interviewed during the game and said they had 300 people at the game to root for Sal. If we assume that was an accurate number, then the Sal Stewart fan club was responsible for 2.7% of the paid crowd at loanDepot park on the night.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Miami Marlins
Tuesday April 7th, 6:40pm ET
Andrew Abbott (0-1, 3.09 ERA) vs Sandy Alcantara (2-0, 0.00 ERA)