By Hal McCoy
Any future anthology about the Cincinnati Reds won’t include what the team is doing these days.
They are out of it. They are in last place. Buried in last place.
But they are following manager Tito Francona’s wishes, “Just keep playin’.”
What they can do is slow down teams fighting for playoff berths and so far, so good.
After taking two of three from the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field over the weekend, the Reds took two of three from the San Diego Padres.
They won the series Wednesday afternoon with a 7-3 win in steamy Great American Ball Park.
They’ve won five of their last seven games and in all five wins they came from behind.
On Wednesday, the Padres led, 3-0, after the top of the second only to watch the Reds score seven unanswered runs, six coming the way the Reds score the most — with three home runs.
The Padres put their leadoff man on base in five of the first seven innings and only two scored. After going 0 for 10 Tuesday in their 4-3 loss to the Reds, they were 1 for 7 Wednesday.
Cincinnati’s Brandon Williamson, making his first MLB start since late April, gave up a two-run home run in the first to Ty France and a run-scoring single to Fernando Tatis Jr. in the second.
He was shaky.
Juan Brito hit a three-run home run off San Diego starter Casey Mize in the second to tie it, then Hector Rodriguez homered in the same inning for a 4-3 lead that stood the test of time.
Blessed with the one-run lead, Williamson settled in and held the Padres to no runs and two singles, one an infield hit, into the sixth inning.
Then the bullpen of Pierce Johnson, TeJay Antone, Tony Santillan and Emilio Pagan were untouchables — 3 2/3 innings, no runs, no hits, two walk.
It was 94 degrees in a near-empty GABP, but it didn’t bother Williamson.
“I’m used to Arizona, whatever, just go play,” he said after spending several weeks rehabbing under the stern Arizona sun.
“I felt good, pretty much even from the jump,” he said. “Early on, I was just kinda throwin’ and not necessarily pitching. I was just kinda throwing stuff in the zone.
“I did that and they’re a good team and took advantage of it,” he added. “As the game wore on I started pitching and executing better on some heaters.”
But it was his cutters that cut down the Padres. All five strikeouts came on cutters.
With Eugenio Suarez in Miami passing his naturalization test to become a U.S. Citizen, that was the only reason Brito was in the lineup.
Tyler Stephenson opened the second with a walk and Dane Myers singled, his first of three hits. Brito reversed Mize’s 2-and-0 93 miles an hour fastball 360 feet into the right field seats to tie it, 3-3.
Two outs later, Rodriguez smashed an 80 miles an hour slurve 371 feet into those same right field seats, his fifth homer, this one giving the Reds the 4-3 lead they diligently guarded.
JJ Bleday had the shortest hit and the longest hit of the day. First he led the sixth with a surprise bunt single and scored on Matt McLain’s sacrifice fly that made it 5-3.
Next inning. Elly De La Cruz singled and with two outs Bleday blasted a 417-footer inside the right field foul pole, the clinching two runs.
And he provided the defensive play of the day. It was already 3-0 in the second and the Padres had runners on second and first with two outs.
Jackson Merrill unloaded on a Williamson fastball and sent it screaming toward the left field wall. Bleday made like Usain Bolt and bolted to the warning track and snagged it backhanded over his head, saving two runs and a 5-0 deficit.
“It is what it is. . .summer in Cincinnati,” was Bleday’s reaction to the heat. “You just have to deal with it. Stay hydrated and stay cool.”
He did deal with it and he was very cool.
The Reds only led, 5-3, when Antone walked Jake Cronenworth to open the seventh. On a 3-and-2 pitch to Fernando Tatis Jr. Cronenworth broke for second.
Antone struck out Tatis and Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson threw out Cronenworth. It was the 20th time Stephenson wiped out a would-be thief and the team’s first strike-em-out, throw-em-out of the season.
The Padres, barely on the outside looking in for the last wild card spot, have lost five of their last six. In need of starting pitching, they acquired Mize from the Detroit Tigers at the trade deadline and he has been a bust so far.
In four innings he gave up four runs and five hits that included the homers by Brito and Rodriguez and has pitched poorly in three of his five starts for the Padres.
“We got our offense from the bottom of the order, especially with the three-run homer from Brito to get us right back in it,” said Francona. “And then we followed it right back up two hitters later with Rodriguez.
“I thought we played a good game,” he added. “We played a good all-around game.”
That they did — homers by two rookies, wipe-out relief pitching, Bleday’s bunt hit and big-swing homer and Stephenson’s throw on Tatis’s strikeout.
Cincinnati’s schedule degree of difficult is the toughest in MLB and it hits a high tick beginning Friday with a three-game series against Milwaukee, then off to the west coast for three against the Los Angeles Dodgers, then on to Milwaukee for three.
As Francona says, “Just keep playin.’”