Wild Pitches Sink ATH as Cincinnati Rallies from 4-3 Down

Three wild pitches in the eighth inning handed Cincinnati a 5-4 walk-off win over the Athletics on August 4. The win probability swung from 37% to 87% on a single sequence that ended with Stewart scoring on a Harris wild pitch — a brutal, self-inflicted collapse for Oakland.

The Athletics looked like they had this one locked up through six innings. Jeff McNeil got things started in the fourth, singling to right to score Soderstrom and put ATH up 1-0. Jacob Wilson then blew it open in the fifth with a two-run double to left, scoring Butler and Walton to make it 3-0. Cincinnati was staring at a three-run deficit with Brady Singer on the mound and the game slipping away.

But the Reds didn't fold. Elly De La Cruz singled to left in the fifth, scoring Rodríguez and McLain in one swing to cut it to 3-2. Sal Stewart followed with a sacrifice fly to right, De La Cruz scored, and just like that it was tied at three. The Athletics answered in the seventh when Bolte scored on a throwing error by shortstop De La Cruz — the same player who had just driven in two runs — to put ATH back in front 4-3. That's the kind of game this was: messy, back-and-forth, and decided by mistakes as much as execution. On the pitching side, Singer and J.T. Ginn essentially cancelled each other out — both went 6.0 innings, both allowed 3 earned runs on 5 hits, and neither factored into the final decision.

Then came the eighth, and it all fell apart for the Athletics. Harris threw three wild pitches in the inning. De La Cruz scored on the first to tie it at four. Then, with Stewart on third, Suárez walked and Stewart scored on yet another Harris wild pitch — the win probability swung from 37% to 87% on that play alone. The story of the night was the Athletics' bullpen handing Cincinnati a game they had no business winning after the seventh. De La Cruz finished 1-for-3 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored, and his night encapsulated the whole chaotic arc of this one — a costly error in the field, a clutch hit at the plate, and ultimately the winning run. Henry Bolte went 3-for-4 for the Athletics, and Wilson's 2-RBI double was the offensive highlight for Oakland, but none of it mattered once Harris lost the strike zone in the eighth. Cincinnati's bullpen — Julian Garcia with a clean inning and Emilio Pagan holding firm despite two hits — did its job. The Athletics' did not.