MLB Rankings: Baseball’s Greatest Hits of Week-24
By Bill Felber
MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits in Week-24
8. Kyle Lewis, 44 percent
One night after O’Grady’s home run was not good enough to lock up a Reds victory, the teams staged a virtual reprise of their Tuesday contest.
This time the Reds led 2-0 through six innings thanks to run-producing hits by Joey Votto and Ervin. Meanwhile, Sonny Gray carried a no-hitter into the seventh, having issued just two walks and hit one batter.
In the bottom of the seventh, however, the Mariners finally figured out Gray, who was complicit in his own downfall. He began by hitting a second Mariner, Austin Nola, and followed that by walking the previous night’s hero, Kyle Seager.
After Gray got Omar Narvaez to line out, Lewis came up. Called to the majors just the previous night, Lewis had gone one for three Tuesday but was hitless in his first two tries Wednesday. Gray delivered a first-pitch fastball on the outer edge of the plate, and Lewis powered it over the 380-foot sign in deep right-center field. The no-hitter disappeared, as did Gray’s lead.
The homer improved Seattle’s chances of winning from 33 percent to 77 percent, but it didn’t settle the issue entirely. After the home team added two more runs off Cincy’s bullpen in the eighth, the Reds staged a last-ditch comeback.
They loaded the bases in the ninth off Sam Tuivalala, and when Anthony Bass came on in relief he struck out Derek Dietrich for the potential third out only to have the pitch scoot past Narvaez. Tucker Barnhart scored and Joey Votto came up with the potential tying run in scoring position. But Bass got Votto to ground easily to first to conclude the game.