Wild-card fever: Cincinnati Reds knock off MLB-best Tigers for third straight series win
DETROIT – Don't look now, but the Cincinnati Reds' playoff plans are back on.
Certainly, if you ask them.
Or if you tuned in over the weekend, when they went to Detroit and upended the team with the best record in the game, winning two of three, including a come-from-behind, 8-4 win over the Tigers on Sunday.
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Forget catching the Cubs in the National League Central.
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The Reds (37-35) might just need to catch the Brewers to put themselves into the chase for their first full-season playoff berth in 12 years. They already caught the Cardinals Sunday.
'Which makes it great,' said TJ Friedl, who opened a four-run eighth Sunday by reaching on an error. 'Having the (third) wild card, the way the new format is, it just makes it all the more competitive.'
Wade Miley pitched five innings Sunday in his second turn since taking Hunter Greene's spot in the rotation with Greene on the IL (groin). Miley allowed only a pair of solo home runs.
Competitive?
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The Reds have won three straight series for the first time this season as they take a day off Monday before opening a three-gamer at home against the Minnesota Twins (36-35).
After sweeping the playoff-minded Diamondbacks at home, they went 4-2 on an interleague road trip through Cleveland and Detroit – moving into a tie with the Cardinals (37-35) and 1 1/2 behind the Brewers (39-34) in the NL Central, following Milwaukee's 3-2 victory over St. Louis Sunday.
"It's huge," Friedl said after the Sunday clincher. "That was a good road trip for us against two good teams. I think today was kind of like just the finishing touches before an off day, battling back and going down late and then punching right back. That's who we are as an offense, and I think today was just a great example of that."
The Reds already have lost their first two series of the season against the Cubs, who have pulled away from the other would-be contenders in the division as the season nears the halfway mark. But in a league that was supposed to be top-heavy enough to leave the NL Central runners-up out of the wild-card race, the projected powers in Atlanta and Arizona have fallen well off the pace.
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Division or bust?
Maybe it's become Catch The Cardinals Or Bust for the Reds.
'That's something for down the road,' Friedl said. 'The most important part for us in this clubhouse is just take care of business each day. Just break things down into winning each day. Compete for what's in front of us that day.
'And then we'll look up after 162 and see where we're at.'
TJ Friedl (29), Spencer Steer (7) and Will Benson (30) celebrate after the final out of the Reds' 8-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park in Detroit June 15. The Reds went 4-2 on their road trip to Cleveland and Detroit after a three-game home sweep of Arizona.
That's probably an especially good tack right now, as the schedule doesn't figure to provide much time for reflection anytime soon – with the Cardinals, Yankees, Padres, Red Sox and Phillies looming after the Twins.
For now, the Reds knocked off a Tigers team with the best record in the game and that had won 17 of 22 series heading into the weekend. They'd lost only one in the last five weeks.
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Along the way they did something they hadn't done in 29 previous tries this year – come back to win a game when trailing after seven innings.
Playoffs or bust?
'We all believe in everyone in this clubhouse,' said former Dodger Gavin Lux, who drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out single in the eighth Sunday. 'We set that expectation in spring that this team should be in the playoffs. We have all the pieces to do it, so now we've just got to go do it. Obviously, we started off slow. That's not really a secret. But getting guys healthy always helps. And our pitchers keep us in every game.
'With the way we've been swinging the bats,' he said, 'it feels like we just keep trending in the right direction.'
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Catch the Cardinals? Wild-card fever?
'That's something for down the road,' Friedl said. 'The most important part for us in this clubhouse is just take care of business each day. Just break things down into winning each day. Compete for what's in front of us that day.
'And then we'll look up after 162 and see where we're at.'
After Graham Ashcraft gave up a pair of runs on back-to-back two-out hits in the seventh to put the Reds down 4-2 Sunday, Friedl opened a big eighth by reaching second on a throwing error by the pitcher. Three hits, a very strange fielder's choice, a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch later, the Reds led 6-4.
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The fielder's choice, with one out and runners at first and second, looked at first like a double play ball, until third baseman Zach McKinstry took an split-second extra to get the ball out of his glove with Elly De La Cruz bearing down on second, then tossed late to second. The relay throw was initially ruled in time for the second out – but overturned on a challenge.
Bases loaded. Then came the Will Benson tying sacrifice fly, Lux's single and run-scoring wild pitch.
All of which started on Friedl's worm-killer to the mound.
"If he jogs, that (inning) doesn't happen," manager Terry Francona said.
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De La Cruz added a two-run homer in the ninth – his fourth straight game with a home run – batting as the DH for just the second time this season. He went 3-for-5 Sunday.
"I found out a good way to really piss him off," Francona said. "I told him, 'I think you'd make a good DH.' I think I heard some Spanish curse words."
Veteran left-hander Wade Miley, in his second big-league start back from Tommy John surgery – and first since his name was linked in a report to a civil case involving whether he provided prescription drugs to the late Tyler Skaggs more than a decade ago – pitched five good innings for the Reds, allowing solo home runs to Jahmai Jones in the third and Wenceel Perez in the fourth to get a 2-2 game to the bullpen.
Lefty hitters went 0-for-7 against Miley.
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"He wanted to go back out, which was a good sign," Francona said. "I don't want to build him up too much too quick. I think we need to keep an eye on him. But he just brings a really good energy.
"Both times you could feel a little bit extra."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds catching wild-card fever with series win over Tigers
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