After waiting the required 45 minutes, the umpires called the game and the Reds owned a rain-shortened victory.
For two hours after the scheduled 7:05 p.m. start, thunder rumbled above Great American Ball Park, delaying the game’s start until 9:08.
When the game began, the thunder continued, only this thunder emanated from Cincinnati’s bats.
In five-plus innings, the Reds assaulted 6-foot-9, 265-pound Minnesota starter Bailey Ober for nine hits.
It didn’t start well. Reds starter Nick Lodolo’s first pitch of the game was blasted into the left field seats by Byron Buxton. That meant the Reds had to come from behind again, which they’ve done now eight times the last two weeks.
And it didn’t take long for them to do it.
TJ Friedl singled to open the Reds first. He has been on base 117 times as a leadoff hitter, second only to Shohei Ohtani’s 132 times as the leadoff hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
With two outs, Spencer Steer lobbed a two-run home run into the front row of the right field seats.
That gave the Reds a 2-1 lead they never surrendered and it gave Steer extra satisfaction.
Steer was drafted in the third round of the 2019 draft by the Twins, but they traded him and Christian Encarnacion-Strand to the Reds for pitcher Tyler Mahle in August of 2022.
Matt McLain drove in a run in the second inning and Steer doubled with one out in the third and scored on Will Benson’s single.
Asked by reporters at the game if Spencer might have extra incentive against his old team, Reds manager Tito Francona said, “You love your ex-teammates likes brothers, but you want to beat their brains out. I’m sure there is something to it.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Lodolo held the Twins to two runs and three hits for six innings, retired the last eight, and was credited with a complete game win. It was his ninth quality start, but the Reds are only 6-3 in those starts.
“Other than that first pitch, Lodolo was really good, really crisp,” said Francona. “But Buxton has done that to a lot of people.”
With the abbreviated win, the Reds pushed four games above .500 (39-35) for the first time since April of 2024.
And the team scrambled into a second place tie with Milwaukee in the National League Central, 6 1/2 games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs.
With its second straight win over Minnesota, the Reds clinched their fourth straight series, taking three straight from Arizona, two of three from Cleveland, two of three from Detroit and two straight from Minnesota.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
It was Elly De La Cruz bobblehead night, but he didn’t do what he did on his previous bobblehead night — hit a grand slam home run.
He was not any part of Wednesday’s offensive deluge, 0 for 3 with two strikeouts.
But that says volumes about the team’s recent success, four straight wins, and wins in nine of the last 11.
Earlier in the season, the Reds relied on De La Cruz. As he went, so went the Reds.
Not now, although he has been on a sizzle streak with four home runs in his last six games.
But lately it has been contributions up and down the lineup. Some nights it is Friedl, some nights it is Gavin Lux, some nights it is Tyler Stephenson, some nights it is Will Benson, some nights it is Santiago Espinal and some nights it is Jake Fraley.
On this night it was Spencer Steer with two extra base hits while the rest of the team contributed seven singles.
Lodolo, as do all the Reds pitchers, appreciates what he is seeing from his team.
“They’re passing it along to the next guy, everybody taking great at bats,” said Lodolo. “We’re playing great defense and when you’re doing all that it is just contagious all around. It’s fun to see those guys ... they’re swinging it,” he said to reporters.
For the Twins, it was their sixth straight loss and 10th in 12 games. One wonders how this team won 13 straight earlier this season.
The series concludes Thursday afternoon with a 12:40 p.m. start.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
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