Nathaniel Lowe, who homered earlier to help the Cincinnati Reds fight back from a five-run deficit, hit a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to claim a 9-8 victory over the Detroit Tigers Friday, April 24.
Lowe’s home run came off future Hall of Famer Kenley Jansen, the Tigers’ closer who had saved six of seven games this season and entered with a 1.35 ERA. The Reds were down to their last strike before Spencer Steer looped a base hit to center field, setting the stage for Lowe’s fourth career walk-off homer.
“I know it’s early, it’s only April, but the sky is the limit for this group,” Lowe said.
Lowe wasn’t the only Red with a two-homer game.
After a Spring Training power surge where he hit seven home runs, Matt McLain entered this weekend’s series against the Tigers hitting just .200 with a .256 slugging percentage and no homers.
McLain regained his power as the Reds, who improved to 17-9, also had to overcome a 1 hour, 49-minute rain delay in front of 23,879 fans at Great American Ball Park.
“When you get this group of guys with the character that we have, and the way that we play the game hard every single day, good things happen,” McLain said.
Prior to the rain delay, McLain launched a two-run homer off of Detroit left-handed starter Framber Valdez to put Cincinnati on the board in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“Just the right approach, just being on time and trying to drive the ball to right field,” McLain said.
When play resumed in the seventh inning, Dane Myers worked a lead-off walk against Detroit reliever Will Vest. McLain worked the count full, then blistered a fastball into the Reds’ bullpen for a game-tying two-run blast.
It was McLain’s first career multi-homer game.
The Reds weren’t done. Elly De La Cruz followed with a single up the middle. He was on second base with two outs when Lowe, who hit his first home run as a Red one inning earlier, hit a choppy ground ball to second base.
Javier Báez backed up into the outfield grass to field it on a high hop, but his throw was wide of first baseman Spencer Torkelson, allowing De La Cruz to score the go-ahead run. Tyler Stephenson followed with an RBI double to give the Reds a 7-5 lead.
“They’ll play. I think that’s a good attribute. It’s not always perfect, but they’ll keep playing. There’s a lot to be said for that,” Reds’ manager Terry Francona said.
Francona said the Reds had to “push a little bit” to resume the game after the rain delay. The Tigers led, 5-3, after six innings when the delay started and the tarp was put on the infield.
“I felt like, I just would rather play nine (innings),” Francona said. “I can understand why they (Detroit) didn’t want to. I wouldn’t, either.”
At multiple points in the series opener, it appeared the Tigers would dent the scoreboard against Reds’ relievers. Both Kyle Nicolas and Pierce Johnson got out of trouble when Detroit was trying to tack on insurance runs before the rain arrived.
Trailing in the eighth inning, the Tigers broke through off of Tony Santillan, who had not allowed a run in 11 appearances this season. Torkelson hit a one-out tape-measure job into the upper deck in left field. Two batters later, Detroit’s Kerry Carpenter delivered a go-ahead two-run, two-out blast into the right field seats.
“I thought tonight was a great team win because our bullpen has carried us for so long and we were able to pick them up tonight as hitters,” Lowe said. “It was a special one.”
The Reds’ bullpen had to cover 15 outs Friday after starter Andrew Abbott lasted just four innings. He permitted five runs on six hits, including a pair of solo homers to Greene and Javier Báez. Run-scoring hits by Matt Vierling in the third and Jahmai Jones in the fourth gave the Tigers a 5-0 lead.
Abbott has now failed to reach the fifth inning in three consecutive starts. Over five starts in April, his ERA is 8.34.
Nicolas got Detroit’s Dillon Dingler to ground into a double play to end the fifth. The Tigers had the bases loaded with nobody out in the sixth when Johnson got a ground out from Báez and an inning-ending double play lineout from Carpenter.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Nathaniel Lowe’s walk-off homer lifts Reds to wild win over Tigers
Reporting by Shelby Dermer, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
