And it didn’t happen in the worst way for the Reds.
San Francisco’s Mike Yastrzemski drowned a two-run home run into McCovey Bay in the 10th inning for an 8-6 walk-off win.
What made it more painful for the Reds was that they led 5-0 after three and 6-1 in the sixth.
But the Giants scored four in the bottom of the sixth to draw within one. Then Wilmer Flores led the eighth with a home run, his third against the Reds this season. And it came off Tony Santillan, the first run he has given up this season.
Emilio Pagan came on to pitch the 10th with free runner Matt Chapman on second. Heliot Ramos flied to deep right, moving Chapman to third.
Manager Terry Francona was saddled with a big, big decision. Should he walk Yastrzemski and set up a possible inning-ending double play or pitch to him?
His decision was to pitch to him and Yaz drove Pagan’s first pitch into the great beyond.
“The reason there...Yastrzemski was 1 for 6 with five punchouts (strikeouts) against Pagan,” said Francona.
“It is easy to say you can play for a double play, but they would run on the first pitch (attempt a steal) and we can’t defend it, we can’t throw through. So it would be second and third.”
The Reds placed most of their eggs in a one inning basket, the five-run third against 42-year-old Justin Verlander, who has one foot inside the Hall of Fame.
Verlander is on his way to despising the third inning.
in his previous start against Seattle, he lasted only 2⅓ innings after throwing 36 pitches to get one out.
He retired the first seven Reds Wednesday, three straight via strikeouts in the second.
Then came that infernal third inning.
He walked Jake Fraley with one out in the third...and then mayhem. The Reds sent five runners home to take a 5-0 lead.
After Fraley’s walk, Austin Wynns singled off third baseman Matt Chapman’s glove and the game paused while the athletic trainer taped Chapman’s glove hand.
TJ Friedl doubled off the top of the 24-foot high right field wall, 24 feet high in honor of Willie Mays, who wore No. 24.
Friedl’s double scored one run and Santiago Espinal’s slow roller toward third went for an infield hit, filling the bases.
Elly De La Cruz, 4 for 32 at the time, picked on Verlander’s first pitch and doubled off first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr.’s glove for two runs.
Gavin Lux singled off second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald’s glove for two runs, a 5-0 Reds lead and time for all the Giants to check their gloves for holes.
From there, though the Reds scored one run and stroked only one hit over the final seven innings and they struck out 16 times. Will Benson, recalled from Class AAA Louisville on Tuesday, started in left field and struck out four straight times.
In the top of the tenth, with pinch-runner Noelvi Marte, also a call-up from Louisville Tuesday, on second, De La Cruz struck out to continue a skid that has reached 6 for 36, his second strikeout of the game to go with two hits.
Lux flied to center, moving Marte to third, but Christian Encarnacion-Strand flied to right. He was 0-for-5 and is in a 4-for-38 dilemma.
“They just kept coming,” said Francona. “We didn’t have an answer after the fifth inning. You want it (5-0, 6-1 leads) to hold up and it didn’t. We did some really good things to build the lead, then they hit their way back into the game.”
Reds starter Nick Martinez and his dancing feet extended San Francisco’s scoreless innings to 21 after they were shut out in the previous two games.
They broke through for a run in the fourth, but it could have been more. Willy Adames walked and Jung Hoo Lee tripled for a run. And the Giants had a runner on third with no outs.
But he didn’t score. Heliot Ramos hit one to the right of the mound. Martinez stopped it with his back to home plate, performed a ballerina pirouette and threw Lee out at home.
The Reds retrieved the run in the sixth without a hit. Verlander walked Lux to start the inning. Verlander struck out the next two, but Spencer Steer reached on a throwing error by shortstop Willy Adames.
Verlander walked Jake Fraley on a full count, loading the bases and Verlander’s day was done. Relief pitcher Lou Trivino walked Wynns, the third walk of the inning, forcing in a run and the Reds led, 6-1.
What looked like an easy stroll for the Reds turned into a weak limp beginning in the sixth when the Giants scored four runs after two outs.
Lee opened with a single, then Martinez struck out the next two. Yastrzemski, 0 for 13 with eight strikeouts for hiss career against Martinez, doubled to place runners on third and second. Martinez threw a wild pitch for a run.
Patrick Bailey, hitting .140, tripled down the right field line for two runs. Taylor Rogers replaced Martinez and nine-hole hitter Tyler Fitzgerald singled home the fourth run of the inning and suddenly it was 6-5.
Then came the Flores home run, then came the Yastrzemski home run and with it came defeat for the 5-8 Reds.
As Francona said about the totality of the game, “Nothing worked.”
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