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Reds 6 Tigers 5 (10)
Damn. There are 16 games left, but that felt like a season saver.
The red hot Tyler Stephenson singled home pinch-runner Noelvi Marte from 2nd base with no outs in the top of the 10th and the Reds won a game they really had to win, 6-5 in 10 innings Tuesday night. Stephenson entered the night hitting .429 in September. Marte was appearing for the first time since an errant pregame throw broke his nose Saturday night.
It was the Reds MLB best 45th come-from-behind win and their MLB best 32nd one run win. Per ESPN, it was their MLB best 15th win when trailing by three runs or more. They are 75-71 on the season.
Wild Card race: Everyone lost, but the Reds!
The Diamondbacks, Marlins, Cubs, Phillies and Giants each lost. The Reds are one game back of Arizona for the 3rd Wild Card.
Team: David Bell used 20 players......13 position players and 7 pitchers in the win. Six relievers tossed six shutout innings...with 0 walks.
Buck Farmer took the 10th. He allowed a leadoff flyout that advanced the extra innings runner to 3rd with one out. The Reds pulled the infield in and India cut down the runner at the plate on a grounder for the second out. Farmer struckout Kerry Carpenter to end it.
The Tigers led 3-0 in the 1st. Reds took a 5-3 lead in the 3rd. The Tigers tied 5-5 in the 5th.
Williamson: 4.0+ IN, 7 H, 5 R, 2 BB, 4 K, HR, 92 pitches. He was making his first start in two weeks after coming off the Covid-IL. The Tigers reached him for three runs in the 1st inning on five consecutive hits. He settled down after needing 46 pitches to record his first four outs and retired seven straight heading to the 5th. But Matt Vierling worked a 13 pitch walk to start the 5th and a Kerry Carpenter RBI double ended his night with 0 outs and a 5-4 lead.
Bullpen: Cruz allowed an inherited Williamson runner to score to tie the game 5-5 in the 5th. Duarte 1.0 IN....Sims 1.0 IN.....Gibaut 1.0 IN.....Diaz took the 9th. Farmer 1.0 IN, save.
O: Senzel 2 H, 2B........Votto 1B, BB.....De La Cruz 1B, BB, 2 R.....India H, BB, 2 RBI.....Friedl H, BB, R, RBI.....Bader 2 H, 2 RBI.....Stephenson H, R, RBI.
Outage: The Reds struck out four consecutive times from the end of the 5th, through the 6th and went out in order in the 7th, 8th and 9th......for 13 consecutive batters retired. They saw 30 pitches over the 6th (11), 7th (10) and 8th (9).
Two-out magic: The first five Reds runs scored after two were out.
Snapped: Elly De La Cruz broke and 0 for 15 skid with a sharp single up the middle. He also walked. He scored from 1B on a singled that parachuted into right field and squirted away from Carpenter. His rocket throw on a DP turn got Williamson out of a 2nd inning jam.
Lineup stuff: De La Cruz hit 7th, first time this season batting below the cleanup spot. Spencer Steer started in RF, his 5th different position this season: 1B-3B-2B-LF-RF.
How the Reds scored:
2nd Friedl, 2-out RBI 1B, 3-1 Tigers
2nd India, 2-out, 2 RBI 1B, 3-3
3rd Bader, 2-out, 2 RBI 1B, 5-3 Reds
10th Stephenson RBI 1B, 6-5 Reds