CINCINNATI – The Reds have been trying to gain ground in the National League playoff race by roughing up clubs from the American League Central.
A 4-2 rain-shortened victory over the Twins on Wednesday at Great American Ball Park gave Cincinnati its fourth straight win, its ninth in its last 11 games and put the club a season-high four games over .500 at 39-35. By claiming the first two games, the Reds have won four consecutive series – including three straight over AL Central teams Cleveland, Detroit and Minnesota.
“It’s fun. We’re playing pretty good, complete baseball," Reds starting pitcher Nick Lodolo said. "When you’re doing that, everyone is contributing in different ways to help us find a way to win a game. When everybody’s doing that, it definitely makes the clubhouse a lot of fun.”
Cincinnati also moved into a tie for second place in the NL Central with the Brewers to go 6 1/2 games behind the first-place Cubs and one game back in the NL Wild Card race. On June 3, they were five games back for a Wild Card spot.
A two-hour, seven-minute rain delay came before first pitch. Another round of heavy showers ended the game with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning. The forecast was grim throughout the evening, but Lodolo wasn't concerned as he pitched six innings and allowed two earned runs, three hits and two walks with four strikeouts.
“You just want to keep going," Lodolo said. "You can’t try to pitch to that or anything. I had no idea when it’s going to happen so you go as long as you can, basically, like today. It happened to work out for us.”
Lodolo gave up a first-pitch home run on a fastball to Byron Buxton to open the game but settled in.
“Other than the first pitch of the game, he looked really good," manager Terry Francona said.
Now 5-5 with a 3.71 ERA in 15 starts, Lodolo was coming off a loss to the Guardians one week ago when he surrendered six runs over a season-low 3 1/3 innings. The Reds had dropped six of the lefty's previous eight starts.
Cincinnati's lineup picked up Lodolo in the bottom of the first. With two outs and TJ Friedl on first base with a leadoff single, Spencer Steer lifted Twins starter Bailey Ober's 1-1 pitch to the opposite way for a two-run homer to right field – his sixth of the season.
Three more hits in the second inning against Ober included Matt McLain's RBI single into right field.
Steer hit a one-out double to left field in the third inning and scored on next batter Will Benson's RBI single to right field for a 4-1 Reds lead. Steer had been in a 2-for-19 funk over his last five games and was batting .184 over his last 11 games.
“When you hit a ball to right field, that’s a really good sign," Francona said. "You saw what happened. He’s on balance, they throw something in and he yanks it for a double down the line.”
Seeing Minnesota, the team that drafted Steer in 2019 and traded him to Cincinnati along with Christian Encarnacion-Strand for pitcher Tyler Mahle before 2022 Trade Deadline, has brought out his best.
In eight career games vs. the Twins, Steer is 11-for-29 (.379) with nine RBIs.
“It’s like your brothers," Francona said. "You want to beat their brains out. It doesn’t mean you don’t love them. I’m sure there’s something to that, always.”
A frequent term thrown around by Reds players during their recent hot stretch has been their "top-step mentality." It was visible in the home dugout again on Wednesday.
“It’s just pulling for the guy in the box," Lodolo said. "We’re not sitting there on our iPads or anything like that. Everyone is watching the game and they’re there for the guy in the box, pulling for him. If he gets it done, great and we’ll move on to the next guy. If he doesn’t, same thing. We’re going to pass it to the next guy and hopefully he gets it done. It’s not one guy trying to be a hero. It’s just playing team ball.”