By Hal McCoy
If there was any proof that the baseball gods are smiling ear-to-ear on the Cincinnati Reds these days, Exhibits A to Z surfaced Tuesday night.
Bottom line: The Reds beat the Miami Marlins, 6-3, in 10 innings, scoring two runs in the ninth to tie it and four runs in the 10th to win it, their fifth straight victory.
How they got there, though, was a story of perseverance and resilience and perhaps a prayer or two.
For eight innings it seemed a hopeless cause because Sandy Alcantara, nicknamed Sandman, put them to sleep.
Alcantara turned three bats into fireplace kindling in the first inning. He threw first-pitch strikes to the first 12 Reds hitters. Through four perfect innings he threw 32 pitches and 28 were strikes.
It was no shock. He was 2-0 in his first two starts and hadn’t given up an earned run or an extra base hit.
The Marlins scored two runs off Reds starter Andrew Abbott in the fourth and that’s where it stood when the Reds came to bat in the ninth.
Alcantara was working on 30 straight scoreless innings and he retired TJ Friedl to open the ninth, two outs away from his second straight complete-game shutout.
He had displayed a tutorial on pitching, pure textbook.
Then Matt McLain happened. He turned on a dangling change-up and drilled it into the left fields corner for a double, the first extra-base hit off Alcantara this season.
And when Alcantara walked Elly De La Cruz, Miami manager Clyde McCullough did the Reds a gargantuan favor. He pulled his ace even though he’d thrown only 91 pitches
When the bullpen gate opened the Reds salivated. Alcantara was gone and the Reds were into the Marlins bullpen.
McCullough brought in Anthony Bender and the Reds quickly bent him out of shape. McLain and De La Cruz pulled a double steal, putting runners on third and second with one out.
Sal Stewart lofted a sacrifice fly to right, scoring McLain and De La Cruz hustled to third. Bender threw a pitch in the dirt that popped up in front of home plate.
De La Cruz was off third base in a millisecond and slid home to tie it, 2-2.
“He was ready for that,” said manager Tito Francona about De La Cruz’s dash for home to tie it. “That’s part of his game. If there is any bobble at all he is going to have a good chance to score.”
There was a bobble, a slight bobble. And that’s all De La Cruz needed.
Emilio Pagan walked two in the ninth and Jared Marsee stole third, his fourth theft of the game, and represented the winning run with two outs.
Pagan struck out ever-dangerous Agustis Ramirez, Miami’s best hitter at the moment, to send it into the 10th.
McCullough brought in Calvin Faucher and the Reds committed baseball assault and battery with four runs.
With ghost runner Spencer Steer on second, Faucher walked Tyler Stephenson on a full count and Noevi Marte struck out.
Nathaniel Lowe pinch-hit in the eighth and grounded out and stayed in the game. This time, with two strikes, he lined the tie-breaking single over shortstop to make it 3-2.
“I was just looking for a pitch I could handle,” said Lowe. “You can’t do too much right there, but thankfully I got it.”
Lowe faced Alcantara in the eighth and grounded to short.
“Sandy had his ‘A’ stuff tonight,” he said. “In a situation like that, any time you see someone new you feel a wave of confidence go through our group. We got the right guys up at the right time. We emptied out the bench and got great performances from out bullpen. It all came together at the right time.”
Friedl walked after Lowe’s run-scoring single and McLain struck again, another double, and this one scored two more runs.
“That’s Reds baseball,” said McLain. “We’re going to keep grinding, keep playing the game hard, play it the right way and we did that tonight and we’re going to keep doing it.”
Of his double off Alcantara, McLain said, “I was just grinding, trying to get something up and out over the plate. He made a good pitch but. . .double.”
“He (Alcantara) was good tonight, but we wore him down. We keep fighting,” he added.
Asked about what a comeback like the one the Reds enacted Tuesday, Francona said, “It’s not just that. Jose Franco pitched two (scoreless innings). Lowe comes in and gets the big hit. Everybody contributed. That, to me, makes it more of special win. It helps your whole ballclub when everybody feels a part of it.
“We competed like crazy,” he added. “There were so many good things that happened even though we didn’t have a ton to show for it. We completed like crazy and that’s what I was pleased about.”
The tonnage arrived in the ninth and tenth.
Francona worried that Alcantara would zip through the game in record time with no damage.
“I thought the game was going to be over by a quarter-to-eight,” he said. “That was pretty special.”
When it was mentioned that McLain battled Alcantara to get the double in the ninth, Francona said, “Everybody had to battle.”
There were a few moments in the sixth inning when it appeared the Marlins might add to their 2-0 lead, give Alcantara a run or two more.
Marsee singled and stole second and third. After Otto Lopez flied to center, Abbott walked Heriberto Hernandez.
He tried to steal second and was called out, but umpire Sean Barber called second baseman McLain for interference, blocking the base with his foot.
So Hernandez was safe and McLain was charged with an error, Cincinnati’s first error of the season after 97 errorless innings.
When Abbott walked Connor Norby on a full count to fill the bases with one out, Francona lifted him for Pierce Johnson.
He preserved a scoreless inning by getting a force at home and a strikeout of pinch-hitter Liam Hicks.
Then the Reds offense finally took charge in the ninth and tenth.