The Cincinnati Reds offense continued their struggles on Tuesday night in the series opener against Chicago. A 9th inning solo home run by Elly De La Cruz is all the team could manage and while it sent the game into extras the White Sox scored four runs in the 10th to put the game away in a 5-1 win.
Final
R
H
E
Chicago White Sox (13-29)
5
9
0
Cincinnati Reds (20-23)
1
6
0
W: Wilson (1-0) L: Pagan (0-2)
Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread
The two teams combined for two hits in the first three innings of the game and it remained scoreless. That changed in the 4th inning when Miguel Vargas hit a blooper into shallow center. The ball feel between Elly De La Cruz and TJ Friedl, who both slid to try and catch the ball and then collided, with Friedl flipped forward after catching a leg from the Reds shortstop. Both players remained in the game. Vargas came in to score two pitches later when Edgar Quero singled and gave the White Sox a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the 5th inning the Reds put themselves in a good situation to score after Spencer Steer doubled to lead off the inning and then moved up to third on a ground out. And then Steer’s indecision wound up costing his team both a run and an out. Matt McLain hit a chopper to the 1st base side of the infield and Steer hesitated to break for the plate before finally deciding to go. The pitcher fielded the ball, causing Steer to pause and then as the pitcher nearly fell over, Steer then headed back to third base where he was easily thrown out.
Andrew Abbott pitched well once again, allowing just the one run on the night in his six innings that came and went without a walk, but the offense was unable to get on the board against opener Brandon Eisert and Jonathan Cannon through his four innings. They couldn’t get anything accomplished in the bottom of the 6th inning despite getting Will Benson on to lead off the inning and him stealing second base to get into scoring position with no outs.
Graham Ashcraft took over for Cincinnati to start the 7th inning and he was greeted with a double off of the wall by Andrew Vaughn. Lynen Sosa followed up with a single to right field and Vaughn moved up a bag. Ashcraft got out of it with a strikeout and a heads-up double play turned by Spencer Steer on a hard grounder where he stepped on the bag then fired to the plate to get Vaughn to end the inning.
Connor Joe doubled with one out in the bottom of the 8th inning. Will Benson then worked a 6-pitch walk, but on the final pitch Joe attempted to steal third base and was thrown out. Santiago Espinal then lined out to the second baseman who was playing almost directly behind the second base bag, ending the inning as Chicago clung to their 1-0 lead.
Emilio Pagan took the mound for Cincinnati in the top of the 9th and worked around a single to keep it a 1-run game. The Reds had the middle of their lineup due to face Steven Wilson. Elly De La Cruz led off the inning and got to a full count before Wilson threw him an 83 MPH sweeper that didn’t do much sweeping and the Reds shortstop hit it 435 feet at 115 MPH into the upper levels of seats in right field to tie the game up. Cincinnati went in order from there and the game headed into the 10th inning.
When the 10th inning began it was Pagan back on the mound and Brooks Baldwin at second base as the White Sox free runner to start the inning. After retiring the first two hitters of the inning and keeping Baldwin at second, Pagan walked Matt Thaiss and they pinch ran for him. Chase Meidroth singled to put the White Sox up 2-1. The next pitch saw Miguel Vargas hit a 3-run home run and end the night for Pagan as Cincinnati made a call to the bullpen to bring in Luis Mey. After issuing a walk he got a ground out to end the top of the frame.
For the second inning in a row the Reds offense had to put up or head to the clubhouse with a loss. Spencer Steer began the inning as the free runner for Cincinnati. Jose Trevino came off of the bench to lead off and pinch hit for Gavin Lux and he flew out to shallow left field. Cam Booser then proceeded to strike out Matt McLain and Connor Joe to end the game.
Key Moment of the Game
Miguel Vargas hitting a 3-run home run in the 10th. While the White Sox had a 1-run lead at that point, his home run put the game entirely out of reach for a team who has struggled to score runs for most of May.
Notes Worth Noting
TJ Friedl exited the game with a sore wrist after having been hit by a pitch earlier in the game and initially remaining in the contest. He had an X-ray and it came back clean.
Reds hitters went 0-10 with runners in scoring position. The White Sox hitters went 4-10.
The Reds are now 0-5 in extra-inning games. They have not scored a run in any of those extra innings.
Cincinnati won the first two games of May. Since then they’ve gone 2-8. In six of those losses they’ve scored zero or one run.
Andrew Abbott now has a 2.10 ERA through six starts and has 38 strikeouts with just 12 walks in 30.0 innings.
Tony Santillan lowered his ERA to 1.29 through 21.0 innings this season.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Chicago White Sox vs Cincinnati Reds
Wednesday, May 14th, 7:14pm ET
Davis Martin (1-4, 4.01 ERA) vs Nick Lodolo (3-3, 3.23 ERA)
