CINCINNATI — One of the difficult parts about a winning streak — and the Cincinnati Reds now have a modest four-game winning streak following Monday’s 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals — is that a closer gets used a lot.
Alexis Díaz, who is rounding into his All-Star form of 2023, closed out both of this past weekend’s victories over the Los Angeles Dodgers, leaving manager David Bell wary of using him Monday.
Advertisem*nt
With a two-run lead in the ninth, Bell called upon Lucas Sims.
Closing isn’t new to Sims, who entered the game with 11 career saves, but none this year. So, Sims was asked, is there a difference between the ninth inning and other innings?
“It’s a little later in the game,” Sims said. “Nothing really changes. The goal is to go out there and give us a chance to win.”
The day after four relievers pitchers combined to give the Reds a sweep over the Dodgers on a bullpen day, the three Reds relievers came in and retired all 11 Cardinals they faced, including nine by strikeout.
“It goes for all of our guys, (the role) can change depending on different factors and availability in our bullpen,” Bell said. “It’s a little bit interchangeable, which the guys in the bullpen make it that way.”
Six of the Reds’ eight relievers pitched either Sunday or Monday, combining to go 12 2/3 innings while allowing just one run on five hits, with no walks and 17 strikeouts.
After the bullpen game on Sunday, the Reds turned to lefty Nick Lodolo to return to the rotation. Lodolo looked sharp, allowing just a first-inning solo homer to the Cardinals’ Paul Goldschmidt in his 5 1/3 innings. While Lodolo had just three strikeouts, he didn’t walk any, and in his first start off the IL used just 81 pitches to navigate his way through the Cardinals’ lineup.
Lodolo gave up a single to Alec Burleson to lead off the sixth inning, but got Goldschmidt to fly out before giving way to Fernando Cruz.
A reliever’s ERA isn’t a great way to judge their performance. Cruz’s 4.07 ERA doesn’t exactly tell the tale of his season. At this point, Cruz is one of the nastiest pitchers in the game. This season he’s faced 100 batters and struck out 48 of them, including all five he faced Monday.
Fernando Cruz's Splitter is a Deadly Weapon.
5 hitters. 5 Strikeouts by Splitters. pic.twitter.com/nwa9cFSxjo
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 27, 2024
“To me, it’s must-see TV,” Sims said of Cruz at this point. “What he’s doing, he’s been such a valuable piece for us. It’s been pretty damn fun to watch.”
Cruz was followed Monday by lefty Sam Moll, who struck out both left-handed batters he faced and got the one right-handed batter he faced to ground out. Then came Sims for the save. Sims struck out the first two batters before getting Nolan Arenado to pop up to Reds first baseman Jeimer Candelario to end the game.
Advertisem*nt
In the Reds’ four-game winning streak, Reds relievers have allowed just two runs, both in the ninth with four-run leads. The Reds’ bullpen has a 3.74 ERA for the season. But over the past two weeks, Reds relievers have a 2.50 ERA and the third-best strikeout-to-walk ratio in baseball.
“I’ve been doing the same thing in the same way, it just happened to be going my way now,” Cruz said. “I mean, it’s just a game, you cannot forget that, we’re not machines. I’ve not changed anything.”
Since losing to the Dodgers in Los Angeles on May 17, Cruz has allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out 13 of the 18 batters he’s faced.
“We’re enjoying the streak and we’re playing really good baseball,” Cruz said. “I was really close before to being like a rocket taking off. We were in the same situation, I was and the team was, we were really close to winning games. Now I’m really good and I think I’m going up and the team is going up.”
(Photo of Lucas Sims and Tyler Stephenson: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
C. Trent Rosecrans is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Cincinnati Reds and Major League Baseball. He previously covered the Reds for the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Post and has also covered Major League Baseball for CBSSports.com. Follow C. Trent on Twitter @ctrent
