By Hal McCoy
For seven innings, the Cincinnati Reds displayed what it takes to win baseball games:
Pitching, timely hitting and defense.
And that’s what they did for those seven innings to construct a 6-1 lead in Game One of the Ohio Cup against the Cleveland Guardians in Progressive Field Friday night.
But another bullpen meltdown nearly let it go slip, sliding away before the Reds escaped with a 7-6 victory.
Resurgent Andrew Abbott pitched five scoreless inning, extending his scoreless streak to 21 2/3 innings.
JJ Bleday, Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz and Spencer Steer provided the timely offense to build that 6-1 lead.
And McLain and De La Cruz provided the hefty glovework.
When Abbott gave up a leadoff home run to Rhys Hoskins in the sixth, Pierce Johnson came in to finish the inning with no further damage.
It looked good for the Reds when much-troubled Tony Santillan pitched a scoreless seventh after giving up nine runs and five home runs in his previous 3 1/3 innings.
The Reds scored three in the top of the eighth, highlighted by McLain’s two-run home run to make it 6-1.
Then came another of those bullpen walk-a-thons. Graham Ashcraft threw 12 straight balls to walk the bases loaded and gave up a run-scoring single.
Brock Burke replaced Ashcraft and walked in two runs and a sacrifice fly to cut Cincinnati’s lead to 6-5.
It was four runs on one hit and five walks for the Guardians.
Fortunately for the Reds, they scored a run in the top of the ninth on a leadoff double by Dane Myers and a run-scoring grounder by JJ Bleday.
Bleday continued his torrid pace with three hits, two runs scored and the big RBI in the ninth.
Why was that ninth-inning run so important?
Because the Guardians scored a run in the ninth off Tejay Antone and it took a miraculous diving stop by second baseman McLain to end the game.
Nevertheless, it is a heart-bending story that Antone got his first save since 2021, coming off three Tommy John surgeries.
He is only the third MLB pitcher to under three Tommy John procedures and come back. The others were Jason Isringhausen and Jonny Venter, neither with much success.
When McLain made the diving stop and throw to first to end the game, Antone pointed his appreciation toward McLain, then pointed lovingly to his three-time surgically repaired elbow.
Asked if he envisioned himself returning effectively, Antone said emphatically, “Of course. That’s what you dream of right there. An opportunity.
“When I was walking out on the field right there, I just thanked God for the opportunity, that’s all you can do,” he added. “From there it was all about the work you’ve put in all year long and it shows up right now.”
Abbott (3-2) was facing a Cleveland team that was 11-3 this season against left-handers. But he also was facing Tanner Bibee, 0-5 and the Guardians had lost eight of his nine starts.
Abbott walked a batter with two outs in the first, escaped putting two on in the second, escaped putting two on in the third and escaped giving up a one-out single in the fifth.
As has been his modus operandi lately, he worked out of every uprising — one run, four hits, three walks and two strikeouts.
“They are a scrappy team that doesn’t K much and takes a lot of walk because they know the zone,” said Abbott about the Guardians.
“The key tonight was getting ahead of them and making them swing at my stuff,” he added.
Abbott had one at bat during which Travis Bazzana forced 12 pitches, fouling off seven pitches.
“I felt like throwing an ephus pitch up there to show him something else,” said Abbott. Bazzano eventually popped up, but it built Abbott’s pitch count and Hoskins’ sixth inning home run was Abbott’s 90th and final pitch.
After a rough April, Abbott has made May his month and said, “It’s about being on time with mechanics. Being able to locate better. Overall execution with spinning pitches in the zone and that opens a lot of avenues for me.”
Bleday led the second inning with a double and the Reds loaded the bases with no outs but produced only two runs on McLain’s bases loaded walk and Tyler Stephenson’s sacrifice fly.
They made it 3-0 in the fifth on a bloop single by Ke’Bryan Hayes and a two-out double by De La Cruz off the top of the right field wall.
Bleday again opened an inning with a double in the eighth and scored on Spencer Steer’s single and McLain homered for the second straight game to make it 6-1 and set up the madcap finish.
McLain finally is on a bit of a tear.
In his last five games he is 6 for 15 with two home runs, two doubles and five RBI.
And he and De La Cruz both made two highlight reel defensive plays, including McLain’s diving stop to end the game.
“Matt made an amazing play,” said Antone. “My goodness, an amazing play. That’s a dude, that’s a dude right there. That’s the spring traing dude we saw right there. Incredible.”
Asked what got him through the ninth, other than McLain’s game-ender, Antone said, “The sweeper, man, the sweeper saved my butt. I threw some good ones to get ahead of guys. It was important to be in the zone, no walks, no free passes, force them to win the game.”
And they almost did, but the Reds hung on by the seam of a baseball.