On a night when fans lined up for hours to snag an Elly De La Cruz bobblehead, the real Elly delivered the ultimate collectible moment—a thunderous grand slam that powered the Cincinnati Reds to a 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates before 31,188 at Great American Ball Park.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pittsburgh Pirates (5-10) | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Cincinnati Reds (7-8) |
5 | 4 | 0 |
| W: Abbott (1-0) L: Heaney (0-1) SV: Pagan (4) |
|||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The victory clinched the series for the Reds, who will go for the sweep tomorrow. It is the first instance of the Reds winning back-to-back series since before the 2024 All-Star break.
Cincinnati — after winning their fourth in the last five games — now stands in third place in the National League Central Division, 1 1/2 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs, who are in a virtual tie for first place. Both teams have later games this evening.
The Offense
Cincinnati hitters’ overall hitting performance tonight, according to the box score: 4-for-27, 3 walks and 7 strikeouts.
The home team was retired in order over the first two innings, but broke through in the third. Santiago Espinal’s one-out double was Cincinnati’s first base runner. Pirates lefty Andrew Heaney then hit both TJ Friedl and Blake Dunn with pitches to load the bases. On a 3-2 pitch with two outs, De La Cruz launched one 388 feet to left field, 107.8 mph off the bat. The grand salami put the Reds up 4-0.
Pirates righthander Kyle Nicolas relieved Heaney in the seventh and the Reds up, 4-2. Noelvi Marte greeted him with a single up the middle, followed by a walk to Gavin Lux. An Espinal fly out to right sent Marte to third with one out. Jose Trevino hit what looked like a double-play grounder, but second baseman Enmanuel Valdez dropped the throw from shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the second-base bag. Everyone was safe, with Marte scoring and Jake Fraley (running for Lux) safe at second. Lefty Tim Mayza entered to face Friedl, who struck out swinging. Dunn was then hit by a pitch for the second time in the game — loading the bases again for De La Cruz. But this time, with the fans chanting, “Elly, Elly,” he grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.
Lux and Dunn both reached base twice on two walks and two hit-by-pitches, respectively. No Reds batter had more than one hit.
The Pitching
Reds’ pitchers’ combined box-score line: 9 innings pitched, 4 hits, 3 walks and 2 earned runs allowed, with 9 strikeouts.
In his first major-league start of the year, lefthander Andrew Abbott pitched five innings, allowing two hits (one was a fifth-inning solo home run by Alexander Canario) and two walks while striking out five. In his 81 pitches, 47 were strikes — 58 percent. You’d like to see that ratio a bit higher, but for the first start of the year in the bigs, it will do. Television commentator Barry Larkin commented more than once that he’d like to see Abbott establish the inside half of the plate against righthanded hitters, and I agree. He was consistently away, away, away, and that will be easy for opposing teams to figure out if it continues.
Ian Gibaut pitched a scoreless sixth. Scott Barlow entered in the seventh, and surrendered a run on two extra-base hits while recording two outs. Manager Terry Francona then brought Tony Santillan in to face Pirates leadoff batter Kiner-Falefa, representing the tying run. The righthander induced a popup to second baseman Espinal to end the inning, then retired Pittsburgh 1-2-3 in the eighth.
Emilio Pagan, Francona’s choice as closer for most ninth-inning opportunities so far this season, retired Pittsburgh in order in the ninth to pick up his fourth save.
One Fan’s Thoughts
1. I’m really liking Pagan as the closer. Yes, I know he lost the Wednesday game against San Francisco. But he gets ahead of opposing hitters, challenges them and locates very well. I wish nothing but the best for Alexis Diaz, but I don’t want to see him resume his role as Reds closer until he shows that he won’t consistently fall behind hitters 2-0 and 3-1.
2. Marte looked very good tonight. He made some very nice defensive plays at third base, and batted 1-for-4 with a single up the middle. It will be interesting to see if he is in the lineup tomorrow. But if he isn’t, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. I trust Francona to make the best decision based on the best rationale for who plays any given day. What we have to remember is that this team is not making player development at the major league level the priority. Now, the priority is winning. There is no way Francona would be here if that isn’t the case.
3. The Reds won tonight despite facing a lefthanded starting pitcher. For the year, Cincinnati’s batting line against lefthanded pitching is .142 /.240 /.248 /.488. Tyler Stephenson, Matt McLain and Austin Hays can’t get back into the everyday lineup fast enough.
4. Espinal doesn’t get enough credit for what he brings to the team. He’s as good of a defensive player as there is on this team, and he’s hitting .250 — a great resume for a jack-of-all-trades.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates at Cincinnati Reds
Sunday, April 13, 1:40 p.m. ET
Carmen Mlodzinski (1-1, 5.19 ERA) vs. Hunter Greene (1-1, 1.31 ERA)
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