Timing can be everything, and for TJ Friedl and the Cincinnati Reds, the occasion may have arrived a for rejuvenated run to the playoffs.
The Reds play host to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series after Wednesday’s 7-2 win over Cleveland that featured the catch of the year in Cincinnati.
The Guardians had just tied the game 1-1 in the third inning Wednesday when Ramon Laureano drove an Andrew Abbott pitch to the wall in center. The ball appeared ready to land on the grass berm behind the centerfield wall for a home run that would have put Cleveland ahead 3-1.
But Friedl raced back, leaped and crashed his back into the wall while catching the ball just above the yellow padded stripe. He added a highlight-reel catch to open the fourth inning, but it was his catch to end the third that changed the course of the game.
“Everything about it, just what a big play it is in the game because it takes two runs off the board. It changes everything,” Reds manager David Bell said.
Friedl added three singles and scored three of Cincinnati’s seven runs in the desperately needed win, just Cincinnati’s fourth in 14 games.
“He’s what we want to be as a team,” Reds second baseman Matt McLain said. “The way he plays through his ups and downs, he’s always playing hard, and that’s really what matters.”
Before the game, Friedl and other Cincinnati outfielders practiced robbing home run balls for the first time this year. It was first-base coach Collin Cowgill running the drill.
“I’m running in (after the catch), I’m looking at him and he’s ecstatic,” Friedl said of Cowgill. “And I’m looking at him like, ‘We worked on that. That’s because we worked on that.’ What are the chances?”
Friedl also stole his team-leading 23rd base in the win for Cincinnati, which leads the major leagues with 139 stolen bases.
The Blue Jays have dropped four of six and enter the weekend occupying the third and final wild-card position in the American League behind the Tampa Bay Rays and Houston Astros.
Shortstop Bo Bichette has missed two weeks with right patellar tendinitis but is on track to return at Cincinnati after he was the designated hitter for Triple-A Buffalo on Wednesday and went 2-for-3 with a run. He was supposed to begin his rehab assignment Tuesday before Buffalo’s game was rained out.
“It felt good,” Bichette said. “That’s why I came here (to Buffalo) so I could go 100 percent mostly and see what it felt like. The swing felt good, timing felt good … The hope right now is to feel good playing shortstop. If (all) goes well, then hopefully I’ll be in Cincinnati.”
Right-handed reliever Trevor Richards (neck inflammation) could be ready to return to the Toronto bullpen after throwing a scoreless inning at Buffalo on Wednesday.
The club also hopes third baseman Matt Chapman (finger) can return to the lineup this weekend against the Reds and avoid the injured list. He last played Saturday.
Both teams resume after an off day on Thursday as Toronto is expected to have right-hander Jose Berrios (9-8, 3.53 ERA) make his 25th start of the season.
Berrios last faced the Reds on Sept. 25, 2020, while playing for Minnesota. He allowed four runs over five innings. He is 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in two career starts against Cincinnati.
The Reds have not announced a starter for Friday. They are expected to start an opener from the bullpen and go exclusively with relievers in the first game of the series.
–Field Level Media