Christian Encarnacion-Strand tied the game with a three-run double in the seventh inning and Gavin Lux singled home Elly De La Cruz with the winning run in the 11th as the host Cincinnati Reds rallied for a wild 5-4 walk-off win over the New York Yankees on Tuesday night.
Spencer Steer tied the game with a single in the 11th and Lux won it to give Cincinnati its fifth straight win over the Yankees dating back to 2023.
Right-hander Connor Phillips (1-0) earned his second career win despite allowing the Yankees to take a 4-3 lead on a wild pitch with one out in the 11th inning that allowed Aaron Judge to easily score. Mark Leiter Jr. (4-4) pitched a scoreless 10th but surrendered the lead in the 11th to take the loss.
The Reds won for the first time in 31 games when trailing after six innings.
The game featured an electrifying debut of one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, the ejection of Yankees star third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. for arguing balls and strikes in the ninth and loud cheers and jeers between Reds and Yankees fans.
Chase Burns, Cincinnati’s top pitching prospect and the second overall pick of the 2024 MLB draft, opened his career in blazing fashion on a steamy night in Cincinnati.
Burns struck out the side swinging in the first inning, including Judge to end the inning. In doing so, he became just the second Reds pitcher in the live-ball era (since 1920) to strike out the side in the first inning of his MLB debut, joining Mo Sanford in 1991.
The right-hander then became just the third pitcher since 1961 to strike out each of the first five batters he faced while making his debut, joining Wade Davis for the Rays in 2009 and Al Leiter for the Yankees in 1987.
Trent Grisham whiffed against Burns to end the third, as Burns completed his first three innings without a run. Burns allowed three runs on six hits in his five innings, striking out eight and walking none on 81 pitches, joining Johnny Cueto as the only two Reds pitchers since 1900 with at least eight strikeouts and no walks in their MLB debut.
But Ben Rice launched a 427-foot home run on the first pitch of the fourth to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Judge and Chisholm singled before Anthony Volpe tripled both runners home when center fielder TJ Friedl couldn’t smother the ball and it rolled to the wall for a 3-0 Yankees advantage.
Yankees starter Carlos Rodon was in line to earn the win, tossing six shutout innings on four hits and one walk, striking out five on 89 pitches.
But reliever Jonathan Loaisiga was touched for three straight hits following a walk with one out in the seventh, capped by Encarnacion-Strand’s three-run double down the left field line to tie the game at 3. Loaisiga was seen by medical staff and manager Aaron Boone prior to the double and left with the training staff following Encarnacion-Strand’s game-tying hit.
–Field Level Media
