Reds stun Rockies with much-needed ninth inning comeback win

The Cincinnati Reds pushed awfully hard to even their series with the Colorado Rockies, just like manager Terry Francona said he wanted.

Facing Rockies fireball-closer Victor Vodnik in the ninth inning and trailing, 3-2, Cincinnati's Will Benson tripled off the top of the wall in left-center field. He missed walking the Rockies off by inches but at least drove in Spencer Steer to tie the contest at Great American Ball Park on Saturday, July 12.

Then, two batters later, Noelvi Marte slapped a grounder to Colorado second baseman Orlando Arcia, who erred when he bobbled the ball. Benson scored for a 4-3 Reds win before a crowd of 33,663.

How big was the win? Francona has emphasized repeatedly he's never won or seen a game that wasn't "big" or meaningful or important to some degree. But in the context of his Thursday, July 10, comments in which he said the team needed to push through the Rockies series, there was some truth that Saturday's victory was a consequential one.

"Sometimes they feel bigger, like (Sunday) because we're gonna sit for the next four days," Francona said. "I get it. We fight hard to get where we are and we need to go the other way, not backward."

The game started brightly for Cincinnati when Austin Hays drove in the opening run of the game on a sacrifice fly in the first inning for a 1-0 lead. Hays, who drew criticism Friday, July 11, for his 0-for-5 game against the Rockies, bounced back to his usual form less than 24 hours later as he went 2-for-4 with the RBI.

That was the Reds' only run until the seventh inning when Marte clapped a solo homer to left, which was his second home run in as many games. Marte (1-for-4) wasn't credited with an RBI on his game-winning contact because of the Arcia error.

If the Reds go on to accomplish something meaningful in the second half of this season, they might look back on that game-winning contact as an important moment in the season.

As things stood on Saturday, the Reds were 49-47. With games still to be played, the Reds were 7.5 games back of the Chicago Cubs in the National League Central race. In the NL Wild Card, the deficit was three games. The better the finish to the first half, the better their platform will be to launch a run in the second half of the season.

In the NL, the third Wild Card berth has proven to be attainable for a wide variety of clubs. While the New York Mets were a stronger entrant in the third Wild Card position last year (89-73), the Philadelphia Phillies were far from an inspiring 87-game winner in 2022.

Both the Diamondbacks and Phillies went on to take the NL pennant. The Mets advanced to the NL Championship Series.

In short, just getting to the postseason can pay off big time. There are compelling reasons for the Reds to maintain their current position, as well as the posture of a contender when it comes to the open market for personnel ahead of the trade deadline.

Brady Singer made his 19th start of the season Saturday and pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with one walk while striking out nine. His season ERA is 4.32.

They're well and truly in the postseason race, but there's more work − or pushing as Francona might say − to do.

"We know where we are and we what we have to do after this break," Reds pitcher Brady Singer said. "Yeah, we're gonna go get a nice break and push to the end of this thing. I trust a lot in this team and the fight we're showing. We just showed it right there, so we're gonna fight and claw in the second half."

Cincinnati will finish the first half with a winning record regardless of the outcome of the series finale against the Rockies on Sunday. They've already bested last year's record at the All-Star break (47-49). A win Sunday would be their 50th in 2025, and mark the first time the club reached 50 wins before the break since 2023 (50-41).