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<\/a><\/p>\nIt almost always comes down to pitching. That was the story when the Reds failed to advance in Game 163 in 1999 and in Game 1 in 2010, 2012 and 2013 (the exception was 2020). That was also around the case on Tuesday around MLB as Blake Snell carved up the Reds with his third pitch (his changeup). Looking at the winning teams in Tuesday\u2019s playoff games around the league, Snell, Tarik Skubal, Matthew Boyd and Garrett Crochet combined to allow five total runs.<\/p>\n
The Reds\u2019 built the 2025 team around Greene and this rotation. Greene is a phenomenal talent coming off of some incredible starts. If I\u2019d have told before the game that the Reds would score five runs on Tuesday against the Dodgers, you probably would have taken it.<\/p>\n
It should have been a storybook moment for Greene, pitching against the team that he rooted for as a kid in a game against the blue blood Dodgers. Greene has always lived under a spotlight. A dominant win on Tuesday would have taken him to a completely different level. There was plenty of belief in him.<\/p>\n
In certain starts in big moments of Greene\u2019s career, he has been very amped up, overpitched a bit at the start and then quickly faded during the middle innings. That didn\u2019t look like it was the case on Tuesday. He just didn\u2019t have his slider or his command. He just had a bad day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s baseball,\u201d Spencer Steer said. \u201cStuff like that happens. It doesn\u2019t take away from the year he has had and how incredible of a pitcher he is. Hopefully, he gets another chance to throw this postseason.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019ll have a conversation tomorrow,\u201d Tyler Stephenson said. \u201cAny time someone has a bad day, you\u2019re always going to be there to support each other. We\u2019re going to be there for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brent Suter knew exactly what Greene was going through. In 2020, Suter started Game 1 of a three-game Wild Card round against the Dodgers. He allowed three runs in 1 \u2154 innings and walked five batters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I failed here, I left it all out there, I just wasn\u2019t executing,\u201d Suter said. \u201cYou learn from it. I bounced back in that offseason. It was heavy at first, but I used it as fuel to get better. The next year, I went out and had my best year. I told (Greene) to use this as fuel. Use this as motivation. Failure can turn into our best teacher. It\u2019s baseball. Baseball is a very humbling game.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lot happened down the stretch of Tuesday\u2019s game, but it all tied back to Greene\u2019s start. If he had pitched better, then the Hays\/Hayes bench decisions don\u2019t play out in the same way, the high-leverage relievers pitch instead of the lower leverage guys (Connor Phillips and Brent Suter combined to allow five runs) and it\u2019s a completely different game.<\/p>\n
The Reds\u2019 plan was built around a big game from Greene. Before the game, Terry Francona was asked why Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes was starting at third over Sal Stewart.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have our guy that started Opening Day on the mound,\u201d Francona said. \u201cIf Hays couldn\u2019t have played, we probably would have played Sal at first (and Spencer Steer in left). I\u2019m not claiming to be Abner Doubleday. I just think with who\u2019s pitching, let\u2019s put our best defense out there of the guys that face lefties. Then if we need to make some adjustments later in the game, we can. I just hate to not catch the ball and have it be my fault. I try to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week against the Pirates, a turning point was a play that Stewart didn\u2019t make at third base.<\/p>\n
Francona still wanted to get Stewart an at-bat on Tuesday. It came in an interesting sequence of moves.<\/p>\n
Austin Hays missed most of the last week of the regular season with back spasms. He fought through and made himself available to play on Tuesday. But with the Dodgers up, 8-0, Francona started making moves oriented toward setting the Reds up better for Games 2 and 3 of the series. Pulling Hays from the game was equivalent to putting Suter in the game and should help keep Hays fresher for the rest of the series.<\/p>\n
Hays subbed out in the bottom of the seventh inning after his turn in the order had passed. Likely as a way for the Reds to not have to make two separate moves and use an extra bench player, Stewart replaced Hays as a straight-up switch, entered the game as a defensive replacement at first base and Steer moved to left.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, we were down eight,\u201d Francona said. \u201cI really want (Hays) to play tomorrow. To be fair to him and everything he has been through, and I also wanted to get Sal an at-bat.\u201d<\/p>\n
How the Reds got to this point came back later in the game.<\/p>\n
Hayes is a Gold Glove favorite at third base, but he has the second-worst OPS in MLB against qualifying hitters. Francona explained pregame his process for starting Hayes over Stewart. But in the top of the fifth inning, Greene was already out of the game and the Reds were only down by five runs.<\/p>\n
Stewart could have replaced Hayes in that spot, but he didn\u2019t. That move really stands out in retrospect.<\/p>\n
Then in the top of the seventh, Hayes was up again with a runner on second. Stewart was getting ready to enter the game for Hays as the Reds trailed by eight runs. Hayes wasn\u2019t pinch-hit for, ended the inning with an out and stayed in the game with the Reds staring down a massive deficit.<\/p>\n
Now, it\u2019s the top of the eighth. Facing a shaky Dodgers bullpen, the Reds scratched and clawed their way back in the game with walks and singles. Dave Roberts took advantage of the Reds\u2019 lineup construction and brought in a left-handed reliever when Elly De La Cruz stepped up to the plate. While De La Cruz worked a productive bases loaded walk to make it a 10-5 game, having a left-hander in the game prevented Francona from subbing in Gavin Lux or Will Benson when Hayes\u2019 turn came back around in the order. Facing lefty Jack Dreyer with the bases loaded in the eighth, Francona\u2019s options were Hayes and Santiago Espinal, who has three at-bats and no hits since Sept. 1.<\/p>\n
Francona stuck with Hayes, and Hayes popped out to end the inning. The rally died, and the Dodgers held on for a 10-5 win.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat (was) a big deficit,\u201d Francona said. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot to ask. But we kept playing. That\u2019s what you\u2019re supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Twelve years ago, in the Cincinnati Reds\u2019 previous playoff appearance during a non-COVID season, Johnny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-181987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}