Nick Senzel singled to right to score Matt Reynolds with the winning run in the tenth inning to lift the Cincinnati Reds past the visiting Tampa Bay Rays, 5-4, Saturday.
Harold Ramirez’s third double of the game against reliever and winner Jeff Hoffman (2-0) scored free runner Josh Lowe to put Tampa Bay up, 4-3, in the top of the tenth. But Hoffman worked out of the jam.
Calvin Faucher (1-3), the eighth Tampa Bay pitcher of the game, allowed a Reynolds single to right to push free runner Kyle Farmer to third. Farmer scored on a wild pitch when catcher Francisco Mejia failed to block a slider.
After a Donovan Solano single to right, Reynolds scored for their second straight tenth inning win over the Rays.
Brandon Drury went 4-for-5 and tied the game with a two-run, two-out single in the eighth as the Reds enjoyed their fourth walk-off win in seven days after none for the first 76 games.
Before Drury’s hit, the Reds were 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
Ramirez’s second double with the bases loaded in the eighth made it 3-0 Tampa Bay. Ji-Man Choi walked to reload the bases with none out. But Ian Gibaut worked out of it with a strikeout and a double play.
Cincinnati rookie starter Hunter Greene was overpowering and didn’t allow a base hit until Ramirez doubled down the left field line with two outs in the fourth.
According to MLB’s official data, Cincinnati starter Hunter Greene threw 38 pitches of at least 100 miles an hour, one shy of his personal best and MLB record of 39 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his second Major League start on April 16.
Cincinnati catcher Tyler Stephenson returned Saturday after breaking his thumb on a foul ball exactly one month earlier. Stephenson singled twice and picked off a key base runner at third to limit Tampa Bay’s damage in the fifth.
Rays young star second baseman Wander Franco was pulled from Saturday’s game in the first inning after a right hand and wrist injury on a foul ball against Greene in his only at-bat. He stayed in but struck out looking at a 100-mph fastball on the outside corner.
Another Rays regular, center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, left the game with a limp after singling sharply to center to open the ninth and was replaced by a pinch-runner.
–Field Level Media
