The Yankees put their leadoff batter on base in eight of the nine innings, creating constant pressure on the Reds.
Meanwhile, the Reds’ traffic was like a dirt road in the backwoods, only five men reached base.
That’s because they faced Max Fried, a left-handed wizard putting together a Cy Young season.
When the Yankees have lost a game or two, Fried puts the plug in. In 10 starts after Yankee losses, Fried is 8-1.
He held the Reds to one unearned run and four hits over seven innings to become MLB’s first 10-game winner (10-2) while lowering his earned run average to 1.92.
And the Reds didn’t help themselves with some sure-to-lose mistakes and gaffes.
They lost two balls in the sun early in the game. Balls that should have been caught glanced off the gloves of center fielder TJ Friedl and shortstop Elly De La Cruz that were generously ruled hits.
First baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand made a throwing error and Santiago Espinal was picked off second base, Fried’s sixth pickoff this season.
Asked by reporters after the game if all the fouled-up play gave the Yankees too many platinum opportunities, Reds manager Tito Francona said, “Ohhhhh, yeah. It makes it a lot more work to do. Stuff like that is never going to show up in the scorebook but it doesn’t help the pitcher.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
De La Cruz had half of his team’s hits, a pair of singles his first two trips and finished the three-game series with seven hits.
On this day, he had no help in front of him. Friedl was 0 for 4. After putting together a 10-game hitting streak batting eighth and ninth, Matt McLain was moved back into the second spot, ahead of De La Cruz, and is 0 for 14.
This one, though, was all about Fried.
Asked about Fried, Francona said, “Oh, boy. That’s pretty good stuff. He’s got all four pitches and commands all of ‘em. He’s just a really good pitcher. He can cut it with velocity, he’s got a four-seamer and a slow breaker (75 miles an hour).
“And you have an elite pitcher who is feeling good about himself,” said Francona.
Reds starter Brady Singer did an imitation of Chase Burns when the first seven outs he recorded were all strikeouts. But Burns didn’t put anybody on base.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
In between those seven strikeouts, the Yankees put eight runners on base in the first three innings and three scored.
Jasson Dominguez led the second with a pop fly that three Reds defenders lost in the sun and it plopped to the grass for a double. He scored on Trevor Grisham’s single, the first of his four hits to match the Reds’ total.
Giancarlo Stanton led the third with a line drive that was in De La Cruz’s glove and popped out and was ruled a hit.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. then picked on Singer’s first pitch, an 83 miles an hour slider, and drove it 433 feet halfway up the moon deck in right for a 3-0 New York lead.
“He struck Chisholm out (in the first) with a couple of breaking balls his first at bat and it looked as if he sat on a breaking pitch the second time and hit it a long way,” said Francona.
The Reds scored their only run, an unearned run, in the fourth when De La Cruz singled, took second on a ground ball and scored when third baseman Chisholm threw wildly to first base on Spencer Steer’s grounder.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The Yankees grabbed the run back in the fifth when Singer hit the first batter, Ben Rice, with a pitch and walked Stanton. Dominguez was given an infield hit when De La Cruz double-clutched his throw on a ground ball. Anthony Volpe’s sacrifice fly made it 4-1.
Singer was finished after five innings and 103 pitches after giving up four runs, six hits, three walks, a hit batsman and a home run. He struck out nine.
“Between the strikeouts and the walks, that made for a very high pitch count (103),” said Francona. “They’re a line-up that’s going to do that anyway.”
The game got away in the sixth when Reds relief pitcher Ian Gibaut gave up two runs to make it 6-1 — three straight hits to start the inning.
To dump salt into an already open wound, former Reds relief pitcher Fernando Cruz and his nose-diving splitter struck out the side in the eighth as Fried’s replacement.
He made quick work of Encarnacion-Strand, Espinal and Friedl.
The Reds are off Thursday, then open a three-game series Friday against the San Diego Padres. It will be Great Eight weekend as the Reds celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1975 World Champion Big Red Machine.
NEXT GAME
Who: San Diego at Cincinnati
When: 7 p.m. Friday, June 27
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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