Cincinnati Reds defeat Atlanta Braves 4-3 to win the series – MLB Update
Drew Stubbs played a great ninth inning to help the Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves by 4-3 at Great American Ball Park on Sunday, July 24 to take a 2-1 series win.
But the win might not have come had it not been for Stubbs whose ninth inning run crumbled the hopes of the Braves to win the three-game series.
Stubbs was looking for an opportune moment to attain this goal. "I went up there looking for a fastball out over the plate," Stubbs said, after the second game-ending homer of his career. "He gave it to me, I put a good swing on it, and the rest is history."
Interestingly, this was the first back-to-back win for the Reds in over one and half month."It's been even longer since we've won three in a row, so we might as well win three in a row," manager Dusty Baker said.
The Reds started the season impressively but failed to keep pace. From making upward progress, the decline started in the first-half of the season which continues to date.
"We know we haven't been playing our best baseball, but we definitely have the pieces of the puzzle to make a run," Stubbs said. "It's going to be a dogfight. Nobody's running away with it. I think we can stay right we're at and make a run at it."
Brandon Phillips hit a two-run homer in the first inning to give the Reds an early 2-0 lead followed by a scoreless Dontrelle Willis inning to maintain it. Brandon Beachy, the Braves’ starter, was hardly spared in the second inning.
Miguel Cairo had an RBI single to triple the lead and keep the Reds chance open to win. But the lead was not to go for long as the Braves made a come-back in the fourth inning when Willis was pitching scoreless innings. Brian McCann and Wilkin Ramirez scored
a single each to bring down the lead 3-2.
Willis pitched right into the seventh inning to maintain the 3-2 lead, but Julio Lugo scored a run in the seventh to level the score, bringing the game in a phase that was open to wild predictions as to who would win it.
The relievers played their part in limiting the offence to score. But it did not go long as Drew Stubbs proved his worth for the Reds. Stubbs homered to right to score the game-winning run for the Reds, giving them a 2-1 series win at a time when Cincinnati
were struggling a great deal.
The Reds put in a brilliant performance to restrict the Braves’ offence and take a crucial victory.
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