By Hal McCoy
The Cincinnati Reds don’t carry magic wands, but surely there must be pixie dust on their bats. And the magic goes on and on and on and on.
The Reds trailed by a run to the Detroit Tigers with two outs and a runner on base in the ninth inning Friday night. . .down to their last out against closer Kenley Jansen, owner of 482 career saves.
Then Nathaniel Lowe happened. . .again. Lowe unloaded a two-run walk-off home run to give the Reds an implausible, improbable 9-8 victory.
Was it apropos that it came at the Midnight Hour?
It was Lowe’s second home run on this rainy night in Great American Ball Park that included a delay of an hour and 49 minutes after the sixth inning. And Matt McLain homered twice.
“Wasn’t that fun?” said Lowe after the game. For the Reds, yes. For the Tigers, not so much.
“We played a great game and came out on top,” Lowe added. “Facing Jansen, I just wanted to get something to hit and thankfully I got it right there.”
What he got was a dangling cutter and he dropped it into the front row of the right-center moon deck.
What happened during the rain delay?
“The guys just stuck together, got a poker game going during the rain delay, kept it light, then you saw the result. We fought back after the delay.”
Reds manager Tito Francona was impressed that the left-handed Lowe was able to leave the premises.
“Jansen has been carving up left-handers,” he said. “He got a cutter and because of that we get to go home happy.”
So, so much happened in this game that enabled the Reds to go 7-0 in one-run games and 13-0 in games decided by three or less runs.
—Lowe wasn’t in the lineup originally, but he replaced Eugenio Suarez when his back tightened up during batting practice. The bad news for the Reds is that Suarez is headed for the injured list.
—And is it possible for a team to score nine runs when it goes 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position. The Reds did it, mostly because seven of the nine runs came on home runs with a runner on first base — three of the four homers.
—Reds starter Andrew Abbott was once again ineffective, giving up five runs, six hits that included two home runs and two walks in only four innings. His earned run average is a lofty 6.59.
Riley Green hit a solo home run in the second and Javier Baez led the third with a home run.
—The Reds were down, 5-0, against Detroit starter Framber Valdez, one of baseball’s best, a pitcher the Tigers are paying $38 million this season.
—McLain crushed his first home run of the season, a no-doubter 421-footer over the center field wall in the fifth.
—The Tigers loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth against always wild Kyle Nicolas. Pierce Johnson came in and got a force play at home and a line drive double play to shortstop Elly De La Cruz to leave it at 5-2.
—Lowe unloaded his first homer, his first for the Reds, in the sixth, a 438-footer that nearly left the stadium for a splashdown in the Ohio River. And it was 5-3.
—Then came a heavy, drenching downpour, causing the hour and 49-minute delay. When play resumed most of the original 23,879 fans were long gone and missed the drama.
—McLain’s second home run, a two-run rip to right center in the seventh, drew the Reds into a 5-5 tie. But they didn’t stop. De La Cruz singled and took second on a ground ball.
Lowe hit a routine high-hopping ground ball to second, a routine third-out play. But Javier Baez threw wildly to first and De La Cruz scored to put the Reds in front, 6-5, and Tyler Stephenson doubled to make it 7-5.
“McLain looked tonight like the kid we saw in spring training,” said Francona. “The ball just jumped off his bat.”
—Francona put the game in the capable right arm of Tony Santillan, but he suffered a rare meltdown in the eighth. He gave up a one-out solo home run to Spencer Torkelson, then a single to Colt Keith and a stunning two-run home run to Kerry Carpenter that pushed the Tigers ahead, 8-7.
When the Reds went down 1-2-3 in the eighth it seemed the magic carpet was about to crash land.
—Jansen easily flicked aside the first two Reds in the ninth, De La Cruz and Stewart. After retiring the Reds two most dangerous hitters, Jansen probably breathed a deep, deep sigh of relief.
And he had two strikes on Spencer Steer, one pitch from ending it. Steer blooped a single to right and Lowe ended it abruptly.
Amazingly, the Tigers put runners on base in all nine innings but scored runs in only four. And their record when they hit at least one homer in a game was 12-1. They hit four in this one, but lost.
Asked if there is something special going on with the Reds, Lowe said, “Yeah, absolutely. We believe in each other and we’re definitely in position to make something happen.”
What happened then was that Lowe was drenched when teammates dumped the Gatorade barrel over his head and he said, “Ah, man. Those are my good batting gloves.”
At least they didn’t break his bat.