A big win on a big night in GABP.
Chase Burns was called up by the Cincinnati Reds to make his big league debut on Tuesday, and not a soul who watched him work will ever forget what they saw.
Burns, the #2 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft out of Wake Forest, struck out the side in the Top of the 1st – including AL MVP frontrunner Aaron Judge – and went on to record strikeouts as each of the first six outs he recorded. In that stretch, he fanned Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Paul Goldschmidt back to back to back, with each of that trio having once been MVPs of their respective leagues in recent memory.
The fun wasn’t to last all game – Burns finished with 3 ER in 5.0 IP – but the top-end stuff flashed by the 22 year old rookie was enough to reveal that the Reds have a very, very talented arm not only for their future, but for their present.
As for the game, well, Ben Rice swatted a big ol’ homer almost all the way up the RF bleachers to give the Yankees an intial 1-0 lead, one that swelled to the aforementioned 3-run variety as Burns exited. The Cincinnati bullpen, however, held serve, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand cashed in a vital 3-run double in the Bottom of the 7th after the Reds fought tooth and nail to get the bases loaded after Aaron Boone turned to his Yankee bullpen.
In extras, Tony Santillan battled through a bases loaded schenario and eventually escaped on a Judge jam-shot pop-out, and the Reds weathered a questionable (and scoreless) Bottom of the 10th after Santiago Espinal was not only asked to stay in against a RHP, but was asked to bunt (and failed).
Eventually, the heart of the Cincinnati lineup worked the bases loaded against Mark Leiter, Jr. in the Bottom of the 11th, and pinch-hitter Gavin Lux poked a walk-off single into CF to score Elly De La Cruz, who had earlier prolonged the inning by beating out a grounder for an infield single.
The 5-4 Reds victory marked the club’s 12th over their last 17 games, and it moved them to 42-38 on the season. It also secured the series victory over the Yankees before Brady Singer and Max Fried face off against one another in the series finale tomorrow night.
The environment in GABP was electric, be it Reds fans there for Burns’ debut or the gaggle of Yankee fans making their way down from Columbus. The Reds won a big game at home in front of a big crowd, and did so while needing to come back twice to make it happen.
The Reds are imperfect, but they’re embettering themselves. And with Chase Burns now in the fold, they’re getting downright electric all up and down their roster.