– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — The Cincinnati Reds’ bats went ice cold at the worst possible time, taking on the hottest team in baseball. However, the timing went the way of the Reds just in time to prevent a total washout in the Big Apple.
Santiago Espinal hit a tie-breaking two-run double in the ninth inning as the Reds defeated the New York Mets 3-1 at Citi Field on Sunday afternoon. Six Cincinnati pitchers combined to allow just four hits in allowing the Reds to snap New York’s nine-game winning streak.
Cincinnati came in to New York on the heels of sweeping the Houston Astros at home, scoring 18 runs combined in the three games. Before the ninth inning of tonight’s game, the number 18 loomed large once more; That was the number of consecutive innings Cincinnati had gone scoreless on its way to losing the first two games of the series and finding themselves tied at 1-1 going into the ninth.
Mets reliever Phil Maton opened the ninth by hitting Spencer Steer with a pitch before Ty France reached on an infield single. Both runners advanced a base on Jake Fraley’s groundout before Espinal sent a ball down the left-field line to give the Reds their first lead of the series.
“[Espinal] wants to be in that spot,” Reds manager David Bell said. “We want him up in that spot. He has the skills to put the ball in play, but it starts with him wanting to be the guy up in a big spot like that.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by New York-based photographer Scotty Rausenberger. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 24 pictures in total.
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