It’s only Tuesday, but it doesn’t get better than this!
Cincinnati Reds outfielder TJ Friedl has been on quite the heater of late.
Last week, he wrapped a seven game stretch where he logged at least two hits in each game, a run that saw him actually log multiple hits in nine out of ten games.
Entering play today, he’d hit an absurd .331/.418/.471 in 41 games (184 PA) dating back to April 16th, the .392 wOBA in that span good for the 17th best among all qualified hitters in Major League Baseball (ranking right behind Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs and his .396 mark). His OBP in this stretch ranks sixth.
To be short, he’s re-emerged as one of the premier leadoff men in all of baseball, something he well established in 2023 prior to his injury-riddled 2024 season. But on Tuesday night in Great American Ball Park, the grandeur he displayed had nothing to do with his work at the plate (even though he did go 1 for 4).
With the Reds 29-32 and slipping ever closer to being irrelevant by the official start of summer once again, it was paramount that they find a way to eek out more victories, especially against their division rivals the Milwaukee Brewers. And after they clawed their way back from an early 2-0 deficit to eventually jump out to a 4-2 lead, it was Friedl to the rescue – this time with his glove in centerfield.
With closer Emilio Pagan on the mound trying to close things out, Milwaukee 3B Caleb Durbin reached on an error by Cincinnati shortstop Elly De La Cruz. That brought pinch-hitter Jake Bauers to the plate as the game’s tying run, and Bauers promptly lifted a blast to straightaway center that took the air out of the lungs of anyone who’s ever seen a fly ball lifted to that part of the tiny park.
Friedl, though, tracked it perfectly. He found the track, measured himself, and leapt as the ball found its way towards the stands.
Friedl caught it, the Reds locked up a vital win, and there was just something about it all that signaled that maybe, just maybe, this was the kind of play that might turn the fortunes of the Reds in the right direction for a bit.
Momentum. Could it be?
For his incredible efforts, I’m calling it early – that’s the Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Play of the Week for the Reds, and may well be a moment we look back on months from now as the play that kick-started the club into playing the way we all hoped they’d play all winter long.
Congrats to TJ on a helluva play. If he’s not an All Star this year, what are we even doing here?