ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Maybe the Cincinnati Reds are more than just a pretty bullpen after all.
It’s still early in the season, but get a load of who doesn’t have the worst lineup in the majors anymore.
After bottoming out in the league through 21 games, the Reds have started slugging and scoring like their long-term playoff plans depend on it – which they probably do.
When they unloaded on Steven Matz and the Tampa Bay Rays bullpen for a season-high 12 runs in a series-clinching victory April 21 at Tropicana Field, they suddenly had more runs in their past 20 innings against two different teams than they had in six previous games combined.
This was a team that ranked last in MLB in hitting, scoring, slugging and OPS through Saturday.
Then they scored three in each of the ninth and 10th innings Sunday to pull off a comeback win in Minnesota and followed that up with 6-1 and 12-6 wins over the Rays – delivering their first four-run inning since April 11 along the way on Tuesday night.
Whether it’s too early to declare them out of a team hitting slump, consider some of the signs of life on Tuesday alone for the team that already was in first place in the National League Central thanks to its stalwart relief pitching:
- Four guys hit home runs, including Ke’Bryan Hayes and Dane Myers back-to-back in the second inning (Elly De La Cruz hit a two-run shot in the first, and Spencer Steer added a solo in the fifth).
- De La Cruz hit two, including one against position-player Ben Williamson in the ninth. Both of the switch-hitters HRs were from the right side – giving him six of eight this season from his weaker platoon side. He had 13 right-handed homers in his career before this season.
- Everybody in the lineup except Eugenio Suárez reached base at least once, including six who reached at least twice – including leadoff-man-for-a-day Myers, who reached four times.
- They scored the most in a game since they scored 14 on Aug. 10.
- Matt McLain, who was in an 0-for-14 skid until Sunday, doubled in the big four-run sixth and singled in the seventh.
- And did somebody say Ke’Bryan Hayes? The third baseman snapped an 0-for-33 skid Monday, reached three times on a pair of walks and his first homer of the season.
Along the way, De La Cruz’s sixth mult-homer game tied Pete Rose for most by a switch-hitter in franchise history.
They Rays’ pitching staff ranks among MLB’s bottom third. And old-pal Nick Martinez (2.45 ERA) is next from the mound against a group he’s pretty familiar with.
But a group with one of the best-hitting young players in the game, Sal Stewart, added for the full season, and 49-homer Suárez added as a free agent over the winter said this kind of life in the lineup was only a matter of time.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds offense scores 12 runs vs. Tampa Bay Rays