They scored three runs in the first inning and Reds starter Nick Martinez retired the first 13 and they took it from there.
Martinez, ‘The Great Foot Shuffler,’ pitched seven innings and gave up no runs and two singles. No Chicago runner found second base against him.
It was his fourth straight quality start. And he did it by coaxing 10 ground balls among his 21 recorded outs and walking none. He has faced 72 straight batters without issuing a walk over his last three starts.
“That’s part of my game, attacking the zone, challenging the hitters,” said Martinez. “Yeah, walks are no good.”
Nobody is more appreciative of what Martinez did and has done than manager Tito Francona.
“He is such a pro and you’ve heard me say that a lot,” he said. “He loves competing. Watch him out there, he is having a ball. I enjoy that. He’s good.”
And of Martinez’s 72 batters faced with no walks, Francona said, “That’s really good. That’s when you’re not beating yourself. You gotta beat him because he doesn’t beat himself.”
Martinez went to 3-and-2 counts four times and retired three. Chicago’s first hit with one out in the fifth came on a full count, a single to right by Matt Thaiss.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Offensively, the Reds gathered 12 hits as everybody in the lineup but Tyler Stephenson produced at least one hit. And three Reds hit home runs — Elly De La Cruz, Will Benson and Matt McLain.
The leadoff batter in five innings reached base and four scored.
It all began in the first inning when the Reds played small ball to score three runs.
And for once, the Reds caught all the breaks. It started with leadoff hitter Gavin Lux. He grounded to third and was called out. The Reds challenged and the call was overturned — safe at first.
Santiago Espinal, enmeshed in a 2 for 26 skid, dropped a beauteous bunt up the third base line for a hit. De La Cruz singled to left, filling the bases.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Austin Hays hit a sacrifice fly to center scoring Lux and Espinal and De La Cruz moved up to third and second.
Spencer Steer lined to shortstop for the second out and it looked as if the Reds might score only one run after loading the bases with no outs.
For all of last year Will Benson hit .187 and he was sent down to Louisville early this season and just this week was recalled.
So it has been, “Where there is a Will, there is no way.” Not any more. Benson delivered a two-out two-run single to make it 3-0.
And the Reds caught another break in the fifth when Benson flied deep to center and the ball glanced off Luis Robert Jr.’s glove and cleared the fence for a deflected home run.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“He is trying to make the most of an opportunity,” said Francona. Benson has played the last three games in place of injured TJ Friedl.
“When we sent him down, we told him, ‘Go play and you’ll get a chance.’ That’s the way the game is. If you deserve it, you’ll get a chance. And he deserved it and now he is getting a chance.”
Matt McLain, dropped from second to eighth in the batting order due to his offensive deficiencies, didn’t pout about it. He is coming around.
He had two hits in the first two games and on Thursday he had a leadoff double in the fourth and scored, then cracked a home run leading off the sixth.
“He’s a good player,” said Francona. “He’s gonna hit. He’s just too good. I don’t want to predict when and where, I just know he’ll get there.”
De La Cruz’s home run in the third was his third in five games and two have gone the opposite way into the left field seats.
“That was really pretty,” said Francona. “When you hit the ball the other way, you are doing something really right. A lot of guys would hit that ball the other way with a nice little fly out and when he comes in everybody says, ‘Nice swing.’ Elly gets rewarded for it because there is so much leverage behind that swing.”
The win ended a three-game losing streak and the Reds had lost five of six and 11 of 15.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Three times during his post-game media conference, Francona said, “Now we gotta back that up.
“I was happy we won and we played good, crisp baseball,” he said. “We played a good game and we need to back that up.”
Benson said there was a team meeting before Thursday’s game.
“We had a meeting before the game and it was said we’re doing all the right things and we just need to click,” he said. “We just needed that one big inning, that one big hit and we got them today.”
They’ll have to back it up for Francona in Great American Ball Park against the Cleveland Guardians, beginning Friday night.
Every year the two teams play for something called the Ohip Cup — the winner of the season series gets to keep the cup. If the games are split, the holder gets to keep it.
And Cleveland has kept the cup for so long it has a highway of cobwebs on it. It isn’t a well-known or much-coveted piece of sterling silver.
Former pitcher Tim Birtsas was scheduled to face the then Cleveland Indians and was asked if he was pumped to win the Ohio Cup.
“The Ohio Cup,” he said. “What’s that, a boat race?”
NEXT GAME
Who: Guardians at Reds
When: Friday, May 15, 6:40 p.m.
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM
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