Then why? In one of the most complexing statistics imaginable, 39 straight times the Reds had lost the next two after losing the first game of the series.
That came to a crashing end Sunday on Father’s Day in front of a standing room only crowd of 40,418 in Comerica Park.
The Reds won Saturday’s game, then obliterated that 39-series streak with an 8-4 win over the Tigers Sunday.
And the Tigers did everything imaginable to help the Reds. Instead of playing like baseball’s best team, the Tigers played like the 2003 team that lost 119 games.
Five of Cincinnati’s first six runs came on four Detroit errors and a wild pitch.
In addition, it was Elly De La Cruz day as the Reds performed another of their oddities, coming from behind to win for only the 12th time this season.
De La Cruz had three hits that included a game-tying single and a two-run home in the ninth to increase the Reds lead from 6-4 to 8-4.
The Reds were down, 4-2, when they came to bat in the eighth. Aided by two errors and a wild pitch, they scored four times.
When De La Cruz came to bat it was 4-3 and he banged a run-scoring single to tie it.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
And it was 6-4 when he came to bat in the ninth. Just to put the game farther out of reach, De La Cruz did what he has done daily recently. He lined an opposite-field two-run home run to make it 8-4.
Home runs are spewing off De La Cruz’s bat like an open tap. He homered in all three games in Detroit and has four homers in his last four games.
“I’m taking my same approach,” he told reporters after the game about his current sizzle. “I’m always ready to go. Every time I go to the plate I go with a plan and I execute it.”
And he executes the opposing pitcher.
Before his single to tie the game, Detroit pitcher Will Vest blew two scorching fastballs on which De La Cruz swung and missed. Badly.
Vest then tried to get cute and sneak a change-up past him and Elly De La Cruz lined it for the game’s most important hit.
De La Cruz often has said that running the bases is his favorite thing and was asked in a post-game interview if he might change his mind and prefer home runs.
“I like hitting homers, but I have more fun running the bases,” he said. “But I enjoy both.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
He has 16 homers and 20 stolen bases, five behind MLB leader Jose Caballero of the Tampa Bay Rays.
The day’s pitching match-up was Cincinnati’s 38-year old left-hander Wade Miley against the Detroit bullpen, a ‘Bullpen Day’ for the Tigers.
Miley gave the Reds five strong innings. Both runs he gave up came on solo home runs by Jahmai Jones in the third and Wenceel Perez in the fourth.
The Reds took a 2-1 lead in the fourth, an inning started by — who else — De La Cruz. He grounded to the mound and beat it for a single and continued to second on pitcher Sawyer Gipson-Long’s throwing error.
Tyler Stephenson singled to score De La Cruz and another error, this one by shortstop Javier Baez, enabled Stephenson to reach third. He scored on Connor Joe’s sacrifice fly.
Graham Ashcraft arrived to pitch the seventh and he gave up two runs and three hits to provide the Tigers with a 4-2 lead, a lead the Tigers usually guard and protect ferociously.
But then came the mayhem in the Reds’ eighth, another inning started by a Detroit pitcher’s error.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Vest bobbled TJ Friedl’s grounder to the mound, scrambled after it, then threw high, wide and ugly to first base, an error that permitted Friedl to reach second.
Matt McLain singled and took and De La Cruz tied it with his hit.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand reached on Detroit’s second error of the inning and fourth of the game, a bobble by third baseman Zach McKinstry that permitted the inning’s third run and pinch-hitter Will Benson’s sacrifice fly was the inning’s fourth run and a 6-4 lead for the Reds.
Even though Ashcraft coughed up the lead in the seventh, when the Reds scored four in the eighth to take the lead that they held, Ashcraft was the winning pitcher.
That’s the kind of day it was for the Reds.
And the loser was Vest, who was 5-and-0 when he took the mound.
In addition to De La Cruz’s day, Santiago Espinal had three hits and Matt McLain, moved from the bottom of the order back to the No. 2 spot, where he began the season, had two hits, scored two runs and drove in one.
NEXT GAME
Who: Minnesota at Cincinnati
When: 7:05 p.m. Tuesday, June 17
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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