By Hal McCoy
When it’s late and the game is on the line, who ya gonna call?
For the Cincinnati Reds it’s Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart or Sal Stewart and Elly De La Cruz. The order doesn’t matter.
Such was the scenario Tuesday night when the Reds scraped past the San Diego Padres, 4-3.
It was 2-2 when the Reds came to bat in the bottom of the eighth and Padres manager Craig Stammen sent Adrian Morejon to the mound.
Morejon throws 100 miles an hour and he lugged a 9-2 record to the Great American Ball Park mound.
He barged ahead 0-and-2 on De La Cruz. Then he became cautious and walked him.
Next was Stewart, who eats breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snacks thinking about these situations. He ripped a single to right center, sending De La Cruz to third.
So many times this season when De La Cruz and Stewart do their things, the rest of the lineup folds like a Mobil road map.
And sure enough, JJ Bleday grounded to second and De La Cruz had to hold while Stewart took second.
Hoping to set up an inning-ending double play, the Padres walked Matt McLain intentionally to fill the bases.
Just what the next hitter, Jose Trevino, loves to see in his peripheral vision. . .bases loaded. He was 2 for 2 this season with the bases loaded.
Morejon went to 3-and-0 on Trevino, which was laughable. A walk? Trevino hasn’t walked in 123 straight plate appearances, longest streak in MLB this season.
Sure enough, Morejon worked the count to 3-and-2 and offered Trevino a high fastball. . .right into Trevino’s hot zone. And he belted it into right field to score De La Cruz for a 3-2 lead.
And Trevino is 3 for 3 with the bases loaded.
“I don’t know about his career with the bases loaded because I haven’t been around him that long,” said Reds manager Tito Francon. “I just know that he can get to velocity.
“That guy for them was throwing 99 and 100,” Francon added. “I know he could have hit into a double play, but he had a real good at bat.”
Next up was just called-up Juan Brito, the player the Reds acquired in the deadline deal with the Cleveland Guardians for Nathaniel Lowe.
Brito was called up because third baseman/designated hitter Eugenio Suarez was in Miami taking a naturalization test for his U.S. citiizenship.
So Brito was at second base, Edwin Arroyo was playing third base for the first time this season and Matt McLain was at shortstop.
Brito made his presence felt by working Morejon for eight pitches and drove the eighth pitch, a 3-2 count, to left field, a sacrifice fly that scored Stewart.
That made it 4-2 and the run was necessary because San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. homered with two outs in the ninth off Emilio Pagan, his second homer of the night.
“Trevino had a real good at bat and so did Brito,” said Francona. “That was a really good at bat. He came as advertised.”
Francona chatted with Louisville manager Pat Kelly about Brito and said, “P.K. told me the kid just plays the game right. And he kinda did that tonight.”
Speaking through a translator, the Dominican-born Brito said, “I look for a good pitch, I compete and I get the ball in the air.”
It was a night of escape acts for Reds pitchers as San Diego was 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position.
Reds’ starter Nick Lodolo wiggled out of a bases loaded with one out situation in the third.
Luis Mey freed himself from a two-on and no outs dilemma in the seventh.
Brock Burke gave up a double and an intentional walk with two outs in the eighth and walked away unscathed.
Lodolo had runners on bases in the first five innings before finishing his outing by going 1-2-3 in the sixth.
Samad Taylor tripled with one out in the first and scored on Manny Machado’s sacrifice fly.
The Reds tied in the bottom of the first on Hector Rodriguez’s leadoff double and Bleday’s two-out single against San Diego starter Randy Vasquez.
Lodolo walked Xander Bogaerts with one out in the second and he stole second. But Lodolo retired the next two.
Then came the third-inning bases-loaded escape act. And Jackson Merrill opened the fourth with a single and Lodolo retired the next three.
Tatis homered for the first time on a first pitch with one out in the fifth to give the Padres a 2-1 lead.
Lodolo went 1-2-3 for the first time in the sixth and turned it over to the bullpen.
The Reds tied it, 2-2, in the bottom of the fifth on a two-out double by Arroyo and Rodriguez’s second hit of the night, a run-scoring single on an 0-2 count.
Lodolo is still tinkering with the grip on his breaking pitches to avoid the return of blisters. Basically, he is a two-pitch pitcher, a fastball and a changeup.
He gave the Reds a quality start — six innings, two runs, five hits, two walks and five strikeouts on a 100-pitch night.
“Some good, some bad and I’m happy I stuck with it,” said Lodolo. “I got out of that third there and that set me up to keep going.
“I was very pleased to get through the sixth,” he added. “I’ve been searching for that for a while. I thought I made good pitches, but I’d like to be in the (strike) zone a little bit more. That’s something I’m hunting for sure.”
The Reds, it seems, hunt for one-run games. They are 24-14 in one-run decisions and it was their 34th come-from-behind win.