In the bottom of the eighth inning of a tie game Sunday, Cincinnati Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson retrieved a dead ball that squirted to the infield grass and then snapped it like a football, shotgun style, to the batboy, flashed a blocking position for a split-second and returned to his spot behind the plate.
Didn’t know anybody noticed that,” said Stephenson, who might wind up with a viral moment if the right people find the video and have enough social media fun with it.
Until then, it served as the ceremonial handing off of Reds season to Bengals season – if not the best football move by a Cincinnati pro athlete on Bengals Opening Day.
Except for the fact that a Reds team with a roster running on fumes and fill-ins isn’t ready to let go of the baton with three weeks left in a baseball season that has long passed it by.
One of those fill-ins, the oft under-utilized Santiago Espinal, continued to show that much with a one-out double in the ninth over the Mets’ drawn-in infield for two runs and a 3-1 Reds victory that snapped the surging New York Mets’ nine-game winning streak and averted a sweep.
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Another of the fill-ins, rookie Julian Aguiar, started the game with 4 2/3 innings of scoreless pitching as he pushes into the final weeks of his longest season as a pro.
What’s Aguiar got left in the tank? “As much as the team needs,” said the right-hander, who gave up just two walks and two singles, including an infield hit, and who has one eye on claiming a piece of a rotation battle for next spring.
Just learn from every outing, get better from every outing and just take your talents to the next level,” he said of his plan. “I’m excited for the next year. Obviously, we’re not worried about that right now.”
A season of underachievement that got hamstrung by a steady stream of injuries to key players since March has been especially crushed in recent weeks by its top three starting pitchers landing on the IL at once and position players continuing to go down.
During what’s already starting to feel like the longest road trip of the season for the Reds, their depleted lineup went 18 innings without a run between Friday night and Sunday’s seventh inning.
They reached late afternoon Sunday one inning away from getting swept by the Mets, who entered the day with a one-game lead over the Atlanta Braves for the final National League playoff spot.
Espinal, a late-spring emergency trade acquisition because of injuries, had a walk-off hit in the 11th to beat the Brewers exactly one week earlier, followed by a two-run hit the next day to help jump-start a sweep of the Houston Astros at home.
If it seems like he’s getting a lot of media attention these days, well, “That’s a good thing,” he said.
Even better for the Reds, it seems, if the 2022 All-Star is back in the fold next season. He’s arbitration eligible this winter.
“I can’t control the future, but, man, I’m living what I have right now,” he said. “I’m going out there playing hard with what’s happening today. And tomorrow I’ve got to do the same thing. I’m not worried about next year.