When a game is headed to the sixth inning with a 7-0 score, the lead is generally secure, save for maybe some Coors Field madness. Even if the trailing team come back, you very rarely see it happen in one inning. And yet that's exactly what happened in Cincinnati Friday night.
The Reds had a 7-0 lead. Tyler Mahle was working on a shutout. And then this madness happened.
- Harrison Bader singled.
- Tommy Edman singled.
- Jose Martinez had an infield single as Scooter Gennett's throw didn't have much on it and Joey Votto didn't really stretch.
- Paul Goldschmidt hit a sac fly. 7-1.
- Tyler O'Neill singled.
- Yairo Munoz reached on another infield single.
- Kolten Wong hit a sac fly. 7-2.
- Paul DeJong doubled to clear the bases, cutting the lead to 7-5.
- Andrew Knizner doubled, scoring DeJong to make it 7-6.
- Bader walked.
- Edman hit a grounder that should've been handled by Joey Votto, but Votto booted it and the error allowed the tying run to score.
- Martinez crushed this three-run homer to give the Cardinals a 10-run inning:
The @Cardinals were down 7-0 entering the 6th.
— MLB (@MLB) July 20, 2019
A casual 10-run (!) inning has changed that. 😱 pic.twitter.com/EANZDceTqj
From the Reds' perspective, that play by Gennett/Votto has to be made and then Votto on the grounder. Just in making the Gennett play, they could have been out of the inning with only one or two runs allowed. Obviously the pitching was bad, too, and the Cardinals' hitters deserve credit for their part.
The Cardinals' club record for runs in an inning is 12, which came on Sept. 15, 1926. The last time they put up a 10-spot was July 21, 2012, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The last time the Reds allowed 10 in an inning was July 26, 2015 in Coors Field.
There's also this:
Tonight the @Cardinals were down 7-0 to the Reds before scoring 10 runs in the top of the 6th.
— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) July 20, 2019
The last time a team was being shut out by 7 or more runs and then had a 10+ run inning was on 6/26/1987, when the Yankees were down 9-0 to the Red Sox before scoring 11 in the 3rd.
Quite the turnaround for the birds on the bat, who entered the night a half game back of the second NL wild card.
