The Cincinnati Reds offense feels unstoppable lately and on Saturday night they kept that going. Sal Stewart had three hits, including a home run, and he drove in five runs as the home team picked up a win over the Detroit Tigers to guarantee a series win and move to 18-9 on the year.
Two pitches into the game and one baseball over the fence. That’s how the game began on Saturday night as Tigers star rookie Kevin McGonigle homered to center to lead off the game and put Detroit up 1-0 early. Cincinnati got back-to-back walks from Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz in their half of the inning before Sal Stewart crushed a 3-run homer to put the Reds on top. Nathaniel Lowe followed with a home run of his own to tack on another run.
Cincinnati got a leadoff double to the wall in center from Ke’Bryan Hayes to begin the 2nd inning. He was standing on third base two outs later, but Jack Flaherty caught a little too much of the zone with a curveball and Elly De La Cruz sent it to the batters eye in center for a 2-run home to make it 6-1. Sal Stewart fouled off a ton of pitches and won a challenge that overturned what was originally called as strike three to work an 11-pitch at-bat that resulted in a single as the pitch count for Flaherty rose to 62 while having recorded just five outs. He would strand Stewart on the bases, but after just two innings and 68 pitches thrown he was out of the game when the bottom of the 3rd began as Detroit went to the bullpen.
Detroit would get another run off of Brady Singer in the top of the 4th inning when Spencer Torkelson hit a solo home run. Singer settled in for a while again after that before turning the game over to Connor Phillips with a runner on and one out in the top of the 6th. Phillips would get out of the inning unscathed. In the bottom of the inning Cincinnati’s offense got a rally going and just like in the 2nd it was Ke’Bryan Hayes getting things started. This time he led off with a single and took second base when TJ Friedl followed up with a hit of his own. Elly De La Cruz then drew a 1-out walk to load the bases. Sal Stewart came through with a 2-run single on a grounder just past a diving second baseman to push the lead to six runs.
Two innings later the home crowd got to watch another baseball sail over the fence for Cincinnati. TJ Friedl worked a 6-pitch at-bat and on that final pitch he turned on a curveball and hit it six rows deep into the seats down the right field line to push the Reds lead to 9-2.
Emilio Pagan entered the game for the 9th inning. He would get a groundout to begin the inning but saw Wenceel Perez single before Detroit called on Hao-Yu Lee to come off of the bench to pinch hit. Pagan was able to get him to fly out and then got a line out to center to end the game and seal a series win for Cincinnati with Sunday’s game remaining.
Key Moment of the Game
Sal Stewart’s 3-run home run in the 1st inning.
Notes Worth Noting
Cincinnati hit four home runs in the game. Sal Stewart and Elly De La Cruz are tied for the team lead with nine of them. That has them tied for second in the National League, trailing just James Wood of the Washington Nationals (he has 10).
Sal Stewart is leading the league in RBI with 29. No one else in the league has 25.
TJ Friedl had a 3-hit game. He didn’t have an extra-base hit on the year through his first 20 games. In the five games since then he’s had four extra-base hits as he’s gone 7-19.
Ke’Bryan Hayes entered the day with five hits on the year. He added two more in this game, making it his first multi-hit game of the season (16 games with a plate appearance). His average is back above .100 for the first time since April 8th.
Graham Ashcraft’s scoreless inning lowered his ERA to 1.29 on the year. Sam Moll tossed a hitless inning and dropped his ERA to 1.50 on the season.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Detroit Tigers vs Cincinnati Reds
Sunday April 26th, 1:40pm ET
Keider Montero (1-2, 3.68 ERA) vs Rhett Lowder (3-1, 3.10 ERA)
