CINCINNATI – It was a blustery Saturday where many of the Reds' frontline players – namely Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart – had big afternoons. But there was a reason the front office wanted to get deeper at the margins, and it showed up as Cincinnati secured a 6-5 win over the Red Sox in 11 innings.
A walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 11th by Dane Myers scored TJ Friedl to end it. Myers, who entered the game for center field defense in the ninth inning, was acquired from the Marlins in a December trade and earned a bench spot in camp.
“We’re really deep. You saw that today. It’s a good feeling knowing everyone in here can get the job done," said McLain, who was 3-for-4 with two walks, an RBI and a run scored.
Cincinnati built a 4-1 lead in the third inning against Boston starter Sonny Gray when Stewart – who also hit an RBI single in the first inning – led off and lifted a first pitch to right-center field for his first homer of the season. As the Red Sox chipped away, Elly De La Cruz made it 5-3 in the fifth inning with his leadoff homer to right field.
Boston kept coming and the lead was 5-4 when closer Emilio Pagán tried for a four-out save. Pagán was one out from securing the victory when he surrendered a game-tying homer into the right field bullpen to Wilyer Abreu.
“I just left a splitter up. I threw 22 pitches. I liked 21 of them," Pagán said. "I thought I threw the ball well. I just left one pitch up and everybody knows if you get in the air to right here, anything can happen.”
Manager Terry Francona had already worked well into his bullpen, with five relievers through nine innings after starter Brady Singer lasted four.
“I’ll tell you what, that’s a lot of innings to cover in the bullpen," Francona said. "And our guys kind of picked each other up. You don’t want guys throwing too much this early so we just kind of pieced it together. And we almost did it. Pagán got to two outs and the last hitter, he couldn’t quite finish it. But they did a really good job of picking each other up.”
Francona turned the game over to Connor Phillips in the top of the 10th inning.
“It’s team ball. We’re on Game 2 of 162, it sucks but it’s going to happen more," Phillips said of picking up Pagán. "So it’s just everybody coming together and having each other’s backs and that’s what happened today. Now we move on.”
Phillips, who gave up two runs in Thursday's loss, delivered this time with two perfect innings in the 10th and 11th. With the automatic runner on second base during both innings, Phillips' swing-and-miss stuff was important for the situation. He struck out three batters, including the first two in the 10th.
“Huge," Pagán said of Phillips. "Especially having already pitched, it’s not exactly the workload that you’re looking for right out of the gate."
Francona had already used nearly every position player option at his disposal. For the ninth, he brought in Myers to play center field and moved Friedl to left field. That had Spencer Steer go from left field to first base to replace Stewart.
Then in the 10th inning, Francona had power hitter Nathaniel Lowe pinch-hit for third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes. That had Steer get moved to third base, where he hadn't played since 2023, while Lowe took first base for the top of the 11th.
Against Red Sox right-handed reliever Justin Slaten, McLain's leadoff walk put runners on first and second and set up Myers, who was batting in Stewart's cleanup spot amid all the lineup changes. Myers lifted an 0-1 pitch into left field, with Friedl scoring easily ahead of a desperation throw to the plate that wasn't close as the Reds evened the three-game series.
“That was a really good at-bat," Francona said. "We got him here to face some left-handers and he gets thrust into that but we’ll take it. At that point, I didn’t care how it happened. I just wanted it to happen.”
For Myers, it was the third walk-off hit of his career and a great introduction to fans of his new team.
“I feel like I have full confidence from the team, staff and players, so it’s easy to go up there and feel confident in myself," Myers said. “I didn’t start the game today but I figured I’d be in at some point to help the team somehow, so I’m happy I came through.”