The Cincinnati Reds swept the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in three games to begin the week. With an off day on Thursday, it is a good time to reflect on the recent hot stretch. Cincinnati has won eight of its last 10 games and is currently riding a five-game win streak.
Going into any road series, if the Reds trot out starters Luke Weaver, Brandon Williamson and Ben Lively and they win one game, that would be an acceptable result. Winning two road games with that trio would be a successful series. But winning three? That is a home run.
Much like Wednesday’s game, where Cincinnati hit four of them, the Reds did exactly that in spectacular fashion.
The series opener saw Cincinnati starter Luke Weaver get off to a sluggish start. Weaver allowed three runs in the first two innings, but settled down from there. Weaver would make it 4 2/3 innings, giving up three runs after issuing four walks.
The Reds bullpen held up their end of the bargain on a taxing night. They collectively gave up just one run in 5 1/3 innings, allowing five baserunners and striking out six Royals.
The final inning was a wild one. In the top half of the 10th inning, Jonathan India drove in TJ Friedl on a fielder’s choice to take the lead. The bottom of the 10th became Ricky Karcher’s debut in Major League Baseball. It was a rollercoaster. Karcher threw just nine strikes out of 21 pitches, but was able to find the zone just enough to get the job done and secure a road win, 5-4, to open the series.
Brandon Williamson ate up just enough innings to qualify for the win, which was the first of his major league career. Williamson gave up three earned runs, four overall, and only struck out one batter.
After Williamson’s exit, the bullpen shined once again. Recent call-up Daniel Duarte, Ian Gibaut, Lucas Sims and Alexis Diaz combined for a line of four innings pitched, one hit, two walks, four strikeouts and zero runs allowed. The Cincinnati bullpen has the 10th-lowest ERA in baseball and the second-highest WAR, according to Fangraphs.
Offensively, TJ Friedl was on base three times and had two of the Reds’ five hits. Kevin Newman and Stuart Fairchild each drove in a run at the bottom of the lineup as well. Outside of that, it was a very quiet night at the plate. Royals starter Jordan Lyles picked up his 11th loss of the season after going six innings and giving up all five runs.
The offense led the way in game three as Cincinnati hit four home runs en route to a 7-4 victory to secure the sweep. Spencer Steer knocked his ninth home run of the season to deep left-center field in the second inning. The Royals then tied it up at one in the third inning on a Bobby Witt Jr. single to right field. Jonathan India drove in Matt McLain in the fourth inning on a double to make it 2-1 Reds.
Then came the fifth inning. Stuart Fairchild got it started with a solo home run to left field after a Tyler Stephenson ground out. Four batters later, Matt McLain took Daniel Lynch deep again with a 428-ft blast that scored TJ Hopkins and Kevin Newman as well. Jonathan India added another extra-base hit as he took a hanging breaking ball from Lynch to left field for the third home run of the inning.
The Royals were able to scrape a few more runs across against the bullpen to make it a bit dicey for Alexis Diaz in the ninth, but Diaz nailed it down and the Reds won 7-4.
The Reds head to Houston to take on the Astros in another three-game series before a six-game homestand next week. Slated to pitch for the Reds are Andrew Abbott, Hunter Greene and Luke Weaver. Houston’s top two pitchers, Framber Valdez and Cristian Javier both pitched the two nights prior to the Reds’ series, so the Reds will see the back half of the Astros’ rotation. Houston will throw J.P. France, Brandon Bielak and Hunter Brown, respectively.
Another fortunate break for the Reds, Astros’ star slugger Yordan Alvarez was placed on the 10-day IL for oblique discomfort on June 9, keeping him out for the entire series. Of course, you never want anyone to be hurt, but it is a fortuitous situation for the Reds regardless.
The Reds will look to extend their winning streak to six games on Friday at 8:10 p.m. in Houston.
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Featured image courtesy of Reds.com
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