The Reds and Guardians faced off in the Battle of Ohio, and things got wild in the eighth inning. Cleveland led by one with runners on the corners and no outs. Franmil Reyes hit a shallow liner that Joey Votto snagged at first. Reyes didn’t tag up, and Votto quickly stepped on first for the second out. Then, instead of trying to beat the runner back to third, Votto threw to third base where the ump called Eddie Rosario out for failing to tag. The Reds had pulled off a rare triple play. Votto fired up the dugout, slapping hands and flashing three fingers as the team celebrated the game-changing moment.
That defensive sequence killed what looked like a big scoring chance for Cleveland. Rosario just took off from third without waiting for the tag, a clear base running mistake. Votto spotted it immediately and made the heads-up throw. He even had a chance to walk the ball over himself for an unassisted triple play, which has only happened 15 times in MLB history. But instead, he stuck to the simplest option and trusted his team to make the outs clean.
The Reds took the momentum created by that play and held on to win. Their offense has been hot lately, consistently pushing games over expected run totals. But on a night when the bats slowed down, Votto’s quick thinking carried the weight.