CINCINNATI – The latest sign the Reds' offense is starting to hum? On Friday, it didn't make one comeback but two. And the hitter who sealed the win wasn't even in the original starting lineup.
Nathaniel Lowe, who stepped in as the designated hitter when Eugenio Suárez was scratched with a left oblique injury about an hour before first pitch, delivered his first two home runs as a Red during a thrilling 9-8 win over the Tigers at Great American Ball Park. Lowe's second homer was a ninth-inning walk-off shot against Kenley Jansen.
“They say they come in bunches," Lowe said of his homers. "Thankfully, after I tore the lid off on the first one, I get to open up, and I’d like to see a bunch keep coming, but just throwing together quality at-bats will lead to that.”
Cincinnati (17-9) has victories in six of its last seven games and eight of its last 10. Much of the club's hitting success in the first month of the season has been courtesy of Sal Stewart and Elly De La Cruz. But during the just-concluded 5-1 road trip through Minnesota and Tampa Bay, others have started coming through.
“I think that’s the type of team we need to be," manager Terry Francona said. "Sal kind of carried us for a while there, and if we start getting contributions from all over the map, that’ll really help us.”
As Lowe flexed his power, Matt McLain showed some of his own with his first two homers of the regular season. McLain had seven homers during Spring Training, but entered the night batting .200 with no homers.
After the Reds and starter Andrew Abbott were trailing 5-0 through four innings, it was McLain who sparked the first comeback.
Facing Tigers starter Framber Valdez in the bottom of the fifth, McLain jumped on a 3-1 sinker and launched it to center field for a two-run homer.
“He looked like the kid that we saw in Spring Training," Francona said. "He hit the ball in the first inning right up the middle, line drive [for a double play]. It was a really pretty swing. It was barreled up. And you hope he doesn’t try to do more, and he didn’t. The ball jumped off his bat.”
In the sixth inning with one out against Kyle Finnegan, Lowe clobbered a 2-1 cutter into the back of the right-field seats, a Statcast-projected 438-foot shot, to make it a two-run game.
Showers forced a one-hour, 49-minute rain delay after the third out of the sixth inning. Instead of the planned postgame fireworks show, the Reds set them off during the delay to fill the time.
The long break did not stop Cincinnati's momentum.
“It speaks to the character we have in this room, and the type of players you have in this room," McLain said. "Rain delays aren’t always fun. But it’s baseball at the end of the day. We’re going out there to win a game, and it was a good one tonight.”
In the seventh, reliever Will Vest walked the leadoff batter, Dane Myers. In a full count, McLain jumped on a fastball that was up over the inner-half of the plate for the game-tying two-run homer. With two outs and Elly De La Cruz on first base with a single, the Tigers summoned a lefty in Brant Hurter to face Lowe. With Suárez unavailable, the lefty-hitting Lowe stayed in the game.
Lowe grounded to second base and reached on Javier Baez's errant throw. The two-base error also let De La Cruz score the go-ahead run before Tyler Stephenson added an RBI double to make it 7-5.
Tony Santillan, who entered with 10 2/3 scoreless innings in 11 appearances this season, surrendered a pair of home runs to Spencer Torkelson and Kerry Carpenter to give the lead back.
In the ninth with two outs against Jansen, Spencer Steer was down 0-2 before hitting a 2-2 pitch for a single to keep the Reds alive.
Next was Lowe, who lifted an 0-1 sinker to right-center field for the walk-off winner.
"Who’s to say if I’m sitting on the bench all night until a pinch-hit at-bat against a Hall of Famer that I get my swing off like that?" Lowe said. "But thankfully, I was ready to go."
Lowe became the first Reds player with multiple home runs, including a walk-off, since Scooter Gennett on April 24, 2018.
“We just don’t give up. I know it’s early," Lowe said. "It’s April. It’s an exciting group. The sky’s the limit with this group. Tonight was a great team win, because our bullpen has carried us for so long, and we were able to pick them up as hitters tonight. It was a special one.”