When Cincinnati Reds right fielder Tyler Naquin crossed home plate in the bottom of the first inning, he smiled. When he got to the Reds dugout, every player in the Reds dugout ran up the steps and either patted him on the back or gave him a high-five.
It was just a run, but it felt like so much more.
Heading into the game, the Reds had gone 11 games without finishing an inning with the lead. The streak was 14 days, 99 innings and almost 7% of the season.
On Sunday, the Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-1, in front of a crowd of 23,124. The Reds’ worst offense in the league had led to an 11-game losing streak.but they broke it in the series finale against the Cardinals.
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The heroes who finally broke the spell of the offensive were Colin Moran, nick senzelAlejo Lopez and JT Riddle.
Moran was in the roster bubble for most of spring training and was exclusively a pinch hitter at the start of the regular season. But he has been pressured for a full-time job because of the Reds’ injury situation. In the first inning, Moran drove in Naquin with a sacrifice fly, and Moran added an RBI single in the sixth.
Senzel, who entered the game batting .107, extended the lead in the first inning with an RBI single. In the next inning, Lopez and Riddle singled, setting up an RBI grounder by Naquin. At this point last week, Lopez and Riddle made up half of the Triple-A Reds’ starting infield. On Sunday, they gave the Reds’ offense a much-needed boost.
The main setup starting pitcher Nick Lodolo for the first win of his young career. Lodolo, a former first-round pick and top prospect, showed against the Cardinals what made him so prized in the Reds’ farm system.
He had Cardinals All-Stars Yadier Molina and Paul Goldschmidt throwing fastballs right into the top corner of the strike zone. He had designated hitter Albert Pujols and outfielder Tyler O’Neill diving to break balls in the dirt.
In a game in which the Reds started three players who started the season in the minor leagues and two more players who were off the roster for most of spring training, the Reds finally created some breaks.
Lodolo edged out Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright, who finished seventh in voting for the NL Cy Young Award last season. Lodolo threw his biggest pitch of the game with two outs in the fifth inning. The Cardinals had a runner on third base, and Lodolo got another Cardinals batter to swing and miss a high fastball for a strikeout.
Lodolo allowed only one run in 5 ⅔ innings. He had seven strikeouts and made the Reds’ best start to the season. The rotation entered the game with the highest ERA in MLB at 7.34, and Lodolo delivered the high-quality start the Reds desperately needed.
There were two distinct phases to the Reds’ 11-game losing streak. In the first half, Joey Votto, Mike Moustakas, Jonathan India and the rest of the Reds’ top hitters were off the bat at the plate. In the second half of the losing streak, the Reds played games without India, Tyler Stephenson, Tyler Naquin, Senzel and Moustakas.
The Reds still have 11 players on the IL, but the new lineup put together a consistent game at the plate for the first time in a while. The Reds had 7 or fewer hits in 10 of 11 losses, snapping that slump Sunday.
The Reds come off the losing streak with a 3-13 record, seven games behind the Cardinals for first place. Last season, the Reds were no more than seven games out of first place through the last day of June.
Bell said he noticed Reds hitters pressing and “trying to do too much” as the losing streak continued. He praised the team’s competitiveness, but the Reds’ problems at the plate snowballed as the team awaited a decisive game.
Naquin’s run in the first inning gave the Reds a long-awaited sense of momentum, and it became their first win in two weeks.
Reference-www.cincinnati.com