CINCINNATI -- For the second day in a row, a young Reds team played a close game against a star-studded Yankees roster. For the second day in a row, Cincinnati’s bullpen allowed three runs in the final inning while the offense was shut out in the bottom half of the frame.
But keeping the game tied from the fifth through ninth innings of the eventual 7-4 loss in 10 innings to one of baseball’s juggernauts was a positive sign for a franchise on the tail end of a rebuild.
“If you’re a good team, you’re going to play in really intense games like that throughout the entire year and hopefully into the postseason,” Reds catcher Luke Maile said. “That one obviously hurt really bad, but you’ve got to get over it. It’s a great team, we’re right there. We really need to just stay together and see the picture here and not let that affect us. When you’re one of the elite teams in our league, you’re going to feel that type of pressure and emotion just about every single night. We’ve got to move on.”
On a day in which Yankees superstar Aaron Judge went 4-for-4 with three RBIs, the Reds had an injury scare with their own former Rookie of the Year.
Jonathan India came to the plate with two outs in the ninth and fouled a ball off his left knee, immediately falling to the ground in pain as the ball trickled toward the mound. A trainer came out to check on the second baseman as he stood up slowly and limped in a circle to test out the knee.
India squatted down, took a breather and jogged back and forth near the visitors’ dugout to see how he could run before taking the bat again, striking out to end the inning and force extras. Kevin Newman, who had pinch-run for Maile after the catcher walked, took over for India at second.
“He’s saying he’s good to play tomorrow,” Reds manager David Bell said. “We’ll determine that later. He actually looks not too bad. Not too terrible. The good news is it’s not broken. Excellent news.”
In Judge, the Reds got to see what they’re striving for to be one of the “elite teams.” Judge came up in the 10th inning with automatic runner Greg Allen at third base and one out. The slugger smacked a sweeper by Reds reliever Ian Gibaut into left field to score Allen and put the Yankees ahead while New York fans at Great American Ball Park cheered on their reigning AL MVP.
“We got him to swing through a cutter, changeup, we tried to get him to expand with a slider and we just gave too much plate,” said Curt Casali, who entered at catcher in the 10th inning. “That's what a good hitter does. I mean, with him, you just try to eliminate as much damage as you possibly can. Today, you know, he had a couple singles, some rockets, but that's all you can do. He's seeing the ball really, really well right now. At the end of the day, all you can do is try to compete with him the best that you can.”
Despite Judge’s reputation, and the damage he’d already done earlier in the game, Bell said he doesn’t regret not walking Judge to bring up Anthony Rizzo, who homered in the next at-bat and gave the Yankees the three-run lead that ultimately stood.
“You think of all the scenarios. It’s a tough spot with Rizzo behind Judge there,” Bell said. “It’s an uncomfortable situation. I trusted Ian. That’s a tough spot, no question. I wouldn’t do it any different to try to win the game. Obviously, it didn’t work out for us.”