And the miracle of all miracles was a miraculous game-ending catch over the center field wall by TJ Friedl.
The Reds led, 4-2, and closer Emilio Pagan retired the first two and dating back to Monday’s game the bullpen had retired 22 straight Brewers.
Caleb Durbin rolled a routine grounder to shortstop, the game-ender. But, no, Elly De La Cruz backhanded it, took a little hop step and winged a 95 miles an hour fastball into the camera well, nearly maiming three photographers.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
That brought up pinch-hitter Jake Bauers and he crushed Pagan’s pitch 106 miles an hour, the ball destined to tie it, 4-4.
But Friedl wandered back to the wall and used all 5-foot-10 of his body and a leap to snag the ball and bring it back from over the wall.
“Off the bat, I knew it was hit pretty well,” said Friedl. “I just kept tracking it and when I got to the warning track I thought, ‘I got a chance at this.’
“I just had to time it up and it was meant to be, a good way to end the game,” he said, still clutching the baseball. “I’m keeping this thing for sure.”
From his vantage point leaning on the dugout rail, manager Tito Francona said, “I think I threw up in my mouth. I’m not even sure how to describe it. He made a grown man cry.”
Catcher Tyler Stephenson’s view from behind home plate was scary for the Reds.
“I usually look at the scoreboard to see how hard the batter hit it and I can usually tell if it’s a home run,” he said. “It was 106 and I thought, ‘Oh, oh.’”
So what other miracles?
— The Reds were facing Fast Freddy Peralta, 3-0 with a 1.89 earned run average in Great American Ball Park.
— The Brewers were on an eight-game winning streak and averaging nearly eight runs a game.
— The Reds were on a three-game losing streak and had scored only five runs in those three losses.
— Milwaukee had won 18 of the last 22 in GABP and beaten the Reds 28 times in the last 37 games.
— The Reds had only come from behind to win games just seven times this season and they fell behind, 2-0, after four innings.
— The Reds batting order was stuffed with several slump-ridden players.
The pitchers, Peralta and Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene put on an early how-to-pitch display.
Peralta struck out five of the first six Reds and six of the first eight, getting ahead 0-and-2 on most of them.
Greene was even better. Incredibly, he faced 23 batters and threw a first-pitch strike to all 23.
But there was a down side. Greene left after five innings when he felt a catch in the groin that put him on the injured list earlier this season.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“Not as bad as in Atlanta but it still grabbed me,” said Greene. “It is frustrating because I want to be out there and I want to compete.”
An MRI Wednesday morning will determine his immediate future.
Green gave up a run in the first on leadoff batter Brice Turang’s double and Christian Yelich’s first-pitch single.
The Brewers made it 2-0 in the fourth on Sal Frelich’s two-out home run.
Two Reds players who are not slumping combined to tie it, 2-2, in the fourth off Peralta. Elly De La Cruz nearly homered with a drive the opposite way, a ball that hit six inches below the top of the wall for a double.
Stephenson, too, went the opposite way, but his drive to right cleared the wall for his fourth homer in eight games.
“Fortunately, we were able to string a couple of hits together and one was a home run, because he (Peralta) is as about as good as they come,” said Francona.
The slumpers? Spencer Steer was 1 for 19. Will Benson was 4 for 30 (all singles) with nine strikeouts. Santiago Espinal was 0 for 17. Matt McLain was 0 for 13. Jake Fraley was 1 for 9 since coming off the injured list.
But three of the slumpers helped produce the two winning runs.
Fraley walked on a full count to open the seventh. McLain shot a ball up the right center gap for a double. Fraley scored on pinch-hitter Connor Joe’s sacrifice fly to make it 3-2.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“I’m thrilled for McLain,” said Francona. “He went out early for batting practice and hit the ball to right field, trying to stay on balance. And he finally rifled one there in a huge at bat.”
McLain also made a miraculous defensive play in the seventh when Yelich led the inning with a bullet train line drive. McLain leaped and backhanded the ball headed for a double in right center.
When Benson came to bat with one out in the eighth, he had struck out three times and was 4 for 33 with 12 strikeouts. He, too, took a pitch the other way to left for a home run and a 4-2 lead.
Is there another miracle in the bag? If the Reds win the rubber game Wednesday afternoon, it will end a string of 11 straight series lost to the Brewers.
NEXT GAME
Who: Milwaukee at Cincinnati
When: 12:40 p.m.
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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