Homers from Matt McLain, Christian Encarnacion-Strand lead Reds past Giants
And this one belongs to the Reds!
The Cincinnati Reds fell behind the San Francisco Giants by an early 2-0 deficit on Saturday afternoon in GABP, but they clawed their way back to a 3-2 victory to earn their first win of the season.
Matt McLain and Christian Encarnacion-Strand each homered, Elly De La Cruz socked an important RBI-single off Justin Verlander, and Nick Lodolo settled in after some early jitters to toss 6 innings of Quality Start™ ball.
Key Plays
- Wilmer Flores continued his assault on the LF seats in GABP with a solo homer off Lodolo in the Top of the 2nd. Reds trailed, 1-0.
- Heliot Ramos led off the Top of the 3rd with a double into LF, and he later scored on a single ripped through the right side by Jung Hoo Lee. Reds trailed, 2-0.
- McLain began the comeback with a towering solo homer into the LF seats off Verlander in the Bottom of the 3rd to halve the score. Later, he doubled in the Bottom of the 5th and scored a batter later when Elly smashed a single in between San Francisco’s 2B and 1B, and the Reds had the game tied, 2-2.
- CES launched his solo homer into the bullpen in RF in the Bottom of the 6th off reliever Spencer Bivens, an oppo shot in a 2-strike count that proved to be the difference. Reds won, 3-2!
The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game
McLain’s homer was his first since August 23, 2023, and that’s good enough for me. Nostalgia!
He finished 2 for 4 with a homer, a double, a pair of runs scored, and a ribbie, while also making a pretty spectacular diving stop moving to his left while playing 2B - precisely the kind of play that’s great to see him pull off given how injured he was all of last year.
Tony Graphanino
WPA chart courtesy of FanGraphs.com
Other Notes
- One game after striking out 17 Giant batters, the Reds struck out just 1 on the day (hat-tip to Former Fearless Leader Slyde for that note).
- Nick Lodolo’s final line: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, K on 86 pitches.
- One game after blowing a 9th inning lead with Ian Gibaut on the bump in save situation, Emilio Pagan got the save opportunity this time around...and earned it!
- Graham Ashcraft danced around a pair of hits in a scoreless IP of relief.
- Santiago Espinal, who kinda quietly hit .288 in the second half of the 2024 season, went 2 for 3 in the start at 3B.
- Sunday’s series finale between these two will feature Robbie Ray and Nick Martinez sharing the mound for their respective teams. First pitch is set for 1:40 PM ET.
- Tunes!