Nipping at the heels of moving into the final wild-card spot in the National League, the Cincinnati Reds will go for a three-game series sweep of the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night in Anaheim, Calif.
Right-hander Nick Martinez (10-9, 4.73 ERA), who is 3-3 with a 3.02 ERA in 13 appearances (eight starts) against the Angels, gets the start for the Reds.
Martinez will be opposed by All-Star left-hander Yusei Kikuchi (6-8, 3.52), who has a 4.15 ERA without a decision in one career start against Cincinnati.
The Reds won their third straight game overall and extended their winning streak against the Angels to 10 in a row with a 6-4 victory on Tuesday.
TJ Friedl drove in Jose Trevino with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly off Angels closer Kenley Jansen with one out in the ninth inning to snap a 4-4 tie. Gavin Lux added an RBI double to cap the scoring for Cincinnati.
Three consecutive Reds reached base against Jansen to set the stage for Friedl’s game-winning RBI. Trevino started the rally with a bloop single to left, went to second when Ke’Bryan Hayes was hit by a pitch and advanced to third after Will Benson walked to load the bases.
Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery and head trainer Mike Frostad then visited Jansen to check on the closer.
“We just went out to check on him, maybe some stiffness and soreness,” Montgomery said. “He said he was OK. We wanted to make sure he was fine. He was absolutely competing in the moment and wanted to get through the inning. … It was a tough inning.”
Friedl drove the next pitch to center, deep enough to not even draw a throw to the plate. Lux then doubled in Hayes, with Benson getting thrown out at the plate to end the threat.
“Just incredible at-bats against a great closer,” Friedl said. “The guy’s been doing it for a while. We just stuck to our approach one at-bat after another, kind of a pass-the-baton mentality.”
The New York Mets also won their third straight game earlier in the evening, 8-1, at Washington, so the Reds were able to keep pace in the wild-card race with the victory.
“I don’t know if there’s much scoreboard watching yet. We’re still in August,” Friedl said. “For us, it’s just taking care of business that day, and that’s the most important thing, instead of getting overwhelmed with what’s going on on the outside. … Just taking it day by day.”
The loss was another gut-punch to the playoff hopes for the Angels who have lost four of their last five contests to fall to 7 1/2 games out of the final wild-card spot in the American League.
Afterward, Jansen admitted to the Orange County Register that he is dealing with something physically that had a “big time” impact on his pitches but wouldn’t elaborate.
“We all deal with something,” Jansen said. “Just gotta go through it. I’ll be fine.”
“He’s been great,” Montgomery said. “He wants the ball. He wants it in that spot. We’ve given it to him all year. He’s been great. Just tonight wasn’t his night.”
The rare ninth-inning meltdown by Jansen came after the Angels had rallied from a 4-1 deficit behind a pair of home runs by Jo Adell, the second one coming with two outs in the bottom of the eighth off reliever Luis Mey to tie it.
“Yeah, it’s very deflating of course,” Montgomery said. “I mean, nobody quits. Obviously, we get back in the game, it’s right there, we tie it, we give (the ball) to our horse (Jansen). We’re hoping to come back in the bottom (of the ninth) and get the victory, but it didn’t happen.”
–Field Level Media
