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‘That’s Reds baseball’: The turnaround that led to the Reds’ best win of the year

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‘That’s Reds baseball’: The turnaround that led to the Reds’ best win of the year

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DENVER — In May, when the Cincinnati Reds were stuck in a slump that was so bad that it looked like it would derail their season, manager David Bell tried something that he knew doesn’t always work. 

Over the last five years, the Reds have had hitter’s meetings before the first game of every series, followed by more informal conversations between the coaches and hitters before the other games in a series. 

Three weeks ago, Bell switched up the approach and had the Reds hold hitter’s meetings every day. “I would advise against (that) for most teams,” Bell said. But a young Reds’ lineup was searching for answers, and the team needed to shake something up. 

This week, as the Reds capped off a series sweep over the Colorado Rockies with a dramatic comeback 12-7 victory, the Reds felt the payoff for weeks of extra meetings, detailed conversations, swing adjustments and approach changes. 

Heading into the eighth inning on Wednesday, the Reds were down by three runs. Left fielder Jacob Hurtubise got the rally started with an RBI triple, and then he scored on a sacrifice fly to very shallow left field. Down a run in the ninth inning, first baseman Spencer Steer delivered the dramatic go-ahead two-run homer with two outs, and second baseman Jonathan India put the Rockies away with a grand slam.

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“This is one of those really special moments in a season,” Reds right fielder Jake Fraley said. “You play 162 games. It’s a lot of games, a lot of innings and a lot of moments. But when you have a moment like that, that’s something we’ll look back on later this season as a pivotal moment that shows the identity of our team.”

With Wednesday’s win, the Reds won their ninth game out of their last 12. The Reds are still under .500 with a 29-33 record. But following this hot stretch for the team, they’re only 1.5 games back of a wild card spot.  

For the first time all year, the lineup is living up to the potential that it had on paper entering the season. Over the Reds’ last 15 games, they’ve scored the second-most runs in MLB, and they’re tied for the second-best batting average in the big leagues.

A lot has changed over the last few weeks. During one stretch at the start of May, the Reds lost 16 out of 20 games. Elly De La Cruz, India and Steer were in the worst slumps of their careers, Fraley was dealing with the aftermath of bronchitis, Friedl broke his thumb and Will Benson had the worst strikeout rate in baseball. 

The Reds’ offense looked lost. 

“We had a lot of meetings,” India said. “You could tell we were pressing. Everyone was pressing. When you lose in baseball, it piles up on you. It weighs on your heart. It was on us. You saw it.”

During the middle of May, the daily hitter’s meetings started. Players took ownership of them. Teams usually don’t meet every day like this because the information can be tedious. But the Reds’ meetings turned into a platform for their veterans to share some perspective. 

“There are guys on this team with a lot of experience who have faced a lot of pitchers,” Friedl said. “It gives them the floor to open up and say what they’ve noticed and how they feel. Things like that. Little details that help you prep before the first pitch.”

On the Reds’ West Coast road trip, they started to climb out of the team-wide slump. The Reds’ series sweep against the Los Angeles Dodgers at the end of May was a breakthrough moment for the team. A grand slam from India, multiple home runs from Steer and a homer by Benson in that series were signs of progress for those hitters as well as the team as a whole. 

Then, over the last week, the Reds went 5-1 on a six-game road trip with a series win over the Chicago Cubs and the sweep in Denver at the hitter’s friendly Coors Field.

“A lot of credit for what we’re doing goes to each and every person and how they’ve shown up every day,” Benson said. “We knew the tide would turn. We stayed committed to our process. That’s what you’re seeing now.”

While the Reds are hitting again, they’re sticking with the process that helped them get back here. Even if it includes an extra meeting every day. 

“We like to work,” Fraley said. “We like to look at things. We like to get better.”

“It’s an opportunity for us all to be on the same page, on one accord, and share information,” Benson said. “It’s a chance for us to break down (an opposing pitcher) together as a unit so we know collectively the best plan to beat each guy.”

To come back on Wednesday, the Reds needed every edge that they could get. India said that at the start of the game, the team was tired. “With the elevation and the road trip, you could see it wearing on us,” India said.In the first inning, the Rockies scored four runs off of starting pitcher Graham Ashcraft. The Reds made their first comeback with two-run home runs by Jeimer Candelario and TJ Friedl. Then in the eighth inning, they mounted another big comeback when they trailed, 7-4.

“That’s Reds baseball,” India said. 

Over the last two weeks, just about every Reds hitter has gotten hot. 

De La Cruz looked like the best player on the field in Colorado, smashing line drives and making acrobatic plays at shortstop. In May, he wasn’t elevating the ball or hitting for any power. He has started to get his timing and his rhythm back to normal, and that was on display in a three-hit game in the series finale. 

Steer hit .176 in May, and he’s hitting .478 now through the first five days of June. He’s hitting the ball more the other way, squaring up the ball more on line drives and he feels more comfortable at the plate. “A lot of it was between the ears,” Steer said. “Believing that you’re a good hitter at the end of the day.”

On Wednesday, Steer was in the middle of a very frustrating game before his go-ahead homer. In the first inning, he hit a line drive that looked like an RBI double, but Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon snagged an incredible leaping catch. Steer got called out on strikes in the seventh inning following a terrible strike 2 call, and he let the umpire know how he felt after the at-bat. 

He put all of that behind him with his homer to left field in the ninth inning. 

“It shows how locked in he is,” India said. “That’s Spencer Steer. He’s not thinking much up there when he’s at the plate.”

India is in the middle of his own turnaround, posting a terrific .971 on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS)  over his last 15 games. The grand slam against the Dodgers was a turning point for him. Ever since then, he has gotten to what he does best and is barreling line drives down the left field line. 

Against the Rockies on Wednesday, India pulled his ninth-inning grand slam over the left field fence.

“You can feel the momentum changing,” India said about the Reds’ lineup. “You can feel us starting to hit. We’re coming up big in big situations. That’s baseball. You guys saw it last year. We’re starting to turn the corner.”

The 2023 Reds were known for their rallies, and that dynamic had been missing until recently. 

Last year, the Reds had 48 comeback wins. This year, they entered Wednesday’s game with just 12 comeback wins with the Reds nearly 40% of the way through the season. 

Wednesday was the Reds’ best comeback yet. Following Steer’s homer in the ninth, players spilled out onto the field.  Friedl stopped as he rounded third base to acknowledge Steer. The Reds were so caught up in the moment that a few of them initially forgot to sprint to the tunnel for the team’s new home run celebration. 

Following India’s grand slam, he pounded his chest and waved around his arms. While most of the Reds went to the tunnel, Candelario was frozen at the top step of the dugout with his arms in the air. 

As they completed the comeback, the Reds looked like a team that’s getting back some confidence that they had badly been missing. 

“Baseball is a game of momentum,” Friedl said. “There’s a funny meme right now of (Candelario) saying, ‘Don’t let the Reds get hot.’ It’s true.”

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