CINCINNATI — For all the damage the Reds did with three solo home runs Saturday night in their 5-3 win over the Brewers, it was how they scored the other two that showed their tenacity on a long, wet night at Great American Ball Park.
No one showed more tenacity than Jose Trevino, the Cincinnati catcher who caught both sides of a contest that was delayed two hours, 22 minutes by torrential rains and had the most crucial at-bats of the game.
With Dustin May out of the game, Trevino had runners on first and third and two outs, facing reliever DL Hall in the bottom of the fourth. Trevino’s line-drive single to right on a 1-2 sinker scored JJ Bleday and tied the game, 2-2. The hit gave new life to a Cincinnati club that was looking for any signs of life against its archnemesis, a team that had won all four previous games in Cincinnati and seven of eight this season.
“To be honest, I was prepared for it before the [extension of the] rain delay,” Trevino said. “I mean, we were ready, but I don’t know what happened to the weather. Just a classic baseball game. Just having to grind it out.”
“When it’s a byproduct of good swings, that is what I care about,” Reds skipper Terry Francona said. “Not that we don’t love home runs, but good swings hit the ball in the gap, extra-base hits, and then when you take good swings, they turn into home runs. That’s good.”
The good Saturday was Elly De La Cruz, Tyler Stephenson and Matt McLain, all of whom belted a solo home run, as well as Tony Santillan (3-4), who got out of a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning with only one run scoring. Emilio Pagán pitched a scoreless ninth for his 21st save in 24 chances, and 15th consecutive converted chance.
“Dudes right there are big time,” Trevino said of the trio of Santillan, Brock Burke and Pagán. “And for Tony, that is huge, man. Obviously, he’s been going through it, man. But for him to get through it, he threw the ball really well tonight.”
After William Contreras belted his 14th homer of the season off Cincinnati’s lefty starter Andrew Abbott in the first, De La Cruz celebrated his bobblehead night by clubbing a Dustin May 0-2 fastball a Statcast-projected 438 feet to the center-field berm to tie the game.
Eugenio Suárez showed a slick glove at third, including a backhanded stab of a Cooper Pratt grounder in the second inning.
Sal Stewart was at the heart of a Brewers rally in the third that gave the visitors a 2-1 lead. David Hamilton reached on a single when he beat out the throw from Stewart to Abbott covering. Abbott had Hamilton picked off, but Stewart’s throw to De La Cruz sailed into left field, allowing Hamilton to reach third. Hamilton then scored on Luis Lara’s groundout to Stewart.
Stephenson put the Reds on top with a towering homer off Hall to left in the sixth, his 15th, before the Brewers loaded the bases against Santillan in the seventh with no outs. Jackson Chourio’s sacrifice fly tied the game before McLain homered to right in the seventh against Aaron Ashby (13-3) for his 15th of the season and a 4-3 lead.
In the eighth, after hitting a one-out double, Suárez scored from second on Grant Anderson’s wild pitch to give Cincinnati an insurance run before Pagán got the ball in the ninth.
“That’s what we’re trying to do,” Trevino said. “Tony’s close, and then you have Brock, so now you’re playing a six-inning game. You know what I mean? And as a team, we try to preach as much as we can, ‘It’s a race to the seventh inning.’ We get Brock in there or Tony in that situation, vice versa. We understand that we have a good chance of winning the game.”