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His wasn’t the walk-off homer, but Mesoraco was clearly the hero of this game.

After 5 innings, Homer Bailey left the game trailing 4-2. Despite a completely respectable 3.83 ERA, Bailey remains, even now, just 1-3. Sam LeCure came in to pitch 2 perfect innings, followed by Sean Marshall and Jonathan Broxton with a perfect inning apiece, but it really didn’t look like it was going to be enough.

Not that the Reds hadn’t done anything. Shin-Soo Choo had smacked his sixth home run of the year, a solo shot in the third. In the fifth, Jack Hannahan drew a walk and was moved over by a Corky Miller single, and then Donald Lutz brought him in with a line-drive. In the eighth, Brandon Phillips brought in Zack Cozart on a sacrifice fly.

Then came the bottom of the ninth. Hannahan was out on strikes, Corky was out swinging, and those 6 runners left on base over the course of the game were a painful reminder of what might have been.

Devin Mesoraco at the plate takes a ball. Swings and misses by a mile. Two more balls. Another strike. Then my husband, sitting next to me in bed as we wait out the end of the game before turning of the lights, turns to me and says, “did that really just happen?”

Mesoraco’s solo shot was just barely over the wall in center field, but WOOOOOOOO! What a wonderfully unlikely turn of events. Check out the FanGraph of the Reds likelihood of winning the game up to that point. They hadn’t been above 50% chance of winning the whole game, but Mesoraco took them from 4% to 53% with just that one swing.

Source: FanGraphs

We were braced for extra after that, but Choo gave us a pleasant surprise by contributing his second home run of the night and letting the Reds win in walk-off fashion.

The win brings the Reds’ record to 19-15. Today they try to keep their home-series winning streak alive when they play the rubber match against the Braves at 12:35.

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Bronson Arroyo waits for a new ball after Bryce Harper lost one in the seats.

The Reds scored just one run, and that was thanks to a solo home run by Joey Votto in the fourth inning off Washington Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez. Gonzalez was on top of his game, though, as that was the only hit he allowed over his eight innings of work. I wonder if Votto will be criticized for hitting a “wasted” home run. It’s probably not something he’s paid to do.

Arroyo was bad and the offense was bad, what else? The bullpen didn’t help matters much. JJ Hoover contributed a scoreless inning, which is nice to see. He’s been a lot more effective now that he’s not being called on to pitch every game. But Logan Ondrusek had a bad outing in the eight, allowing the Nationals to score two more runs. Other than that, he’s been much improved since returning to the majors this year.

Today the Reds will go again for their second road victory of the season. That’s right. They’ve won just one road game so far, having an away record of 1-6. They’ll hope for better luck tonight when Homer Bailey goes against Jordan Zimmerman at 7:05pm.

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The Reds took the game and the series from the Cubs yesterday, but just barely.

Mat Latos was great and finally got a win for his efforts. He put in 7.0+ innings and allowed 0 runs on 4 hits and a walk. One of those hits and the walk were to the first two guys he faced in the eighth, though, so it was a good time to bring in Jonathan Broxton for three quick outs. Aroldis Chapman took over for the ninth and allowed a hit before closing it out for the save.

The pitchers were backed up with some good defense, of course. Those among us who weren’t so sure about Shin-Soo Choo in center field were all ready feel vindicated when the Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo did this:

(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

Rizzo looks like of like Ryan Reynolds when he’s disappointed. In fact, he lined out to Choo 3 times yesterday.

On the other side of the innings, the Reds’ only run came from a 2-out solo shot by Todd Frazier in the sixth inning. Choo went 2-for-4 to drag down his OBP a little. Zack Cozart, Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Devin Mesoraco, and Latos also contributed hits that didn’t end up coming to anything. Votto was caught stealing for the first time this season in the first inning. Joey Votto is not paid to get caught stealing.

The win brings the Reds’ record to 13-9. With the same number of wins as the Cardinals and one more loss, the Reds are currently .5 game out of first place. They go to visit the Nationals tonight at 7:05 p.m. Bronson Arroyo (RHP, 2-1, 3.54 ERA) takes on Gio Gonzalez (LHP, 1-1, 5.85 ERA)

Boxscore

Tony Cingrani mowing down Marlins batters.

Except for criticizing Joey Votto, but that’s lead to a fabulous new meme.

Yesterday had everything. Good pitching, good offense, and a feel-good story about a bat boy.

Tony Cingrani made his first major league start, in place of an injured Johnny Cueto, and showed that he has the stuff to compete. Granted, it was against the Miami Marlins, so it’s hardly a step above the AAA competition he’s used to, but Cingrani still did well. In five innings, he allowed one run on five hits and three walks and struck out 8.

Cingrani’s clearly a work in progress, as that’s too many people to allow on base to be successful against actual major league teams on a prolonged basis. Additionally, his pitch count of 102 was too high for five innings. Still, there’s some promising stuff there. If I remember correctly, Cueto wasn’t dissimilar to that when he first arrived.

As for the offense, they started in the third and hardly stopped for the rest of the game. While Votto was at the plate, Jose Fernandez unleashed a wild pitch that allowed Shin-Soo Choo to score the Reds’ first run.

In the next inning, the Reds really felt comfortable with Fernandez and put together four hits, a walk, and a sacrifice fly to push their run total to five. They weren’t done, but that was all they’d need. In the fifth, the Reds scored four more. And then in the sixth, Todd Frazier hit his fifth home run of the season to give the Reds 11 runs on the day.

The bullpen held the Marlins scoreless for the rest of the game, ensuring Cingrani’s first start would also be his first win.

The Reds look to extend their win streak tonight when Mat Latos goes against Kevin Slowey. The first pitch is at 7:10pm.