Marte's Sac Fly Breaks Tie, Reds Edge Athletics 3-2

Noelvi Marte's sixth-inning sacrifice fly to right proved to be the decisive blow as Cincinnati held off Oakland 3-2 on August 5. The game turned on a single inning where both teams traded runs — and the Reds got the last word.

Lawrence Butler set the tone early, launching a 415-foot home run to right center in the first inning to put the Athletics on top 1-0. Cincinnati answered quickly in the second — Jose Trevino singled to left, scoring Marte to knot it at one. The game then settled into a pitching standoff until the fifth, when Matt McLain went deep to right center (378 feet) to give the Reds a 2-1 lead. Jacob Lopez had struck out nine over five innings for Oakland, but that McLain shot was the one he couldn't take back.

The sixth inning is where this game lived and died. Jonah Heim doubled to right, scoring Tyler Soderstrom to tie it at two — and that swing was massive. Cincinnati's win probability dropped from 70% to 54% on that one play, a 16-point lurch that suddenly made this a genuine coin flip. But the Reds didn't flinch. Marte stepped up and hit a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Stewart, and just like that Cincinnati was back in front 3-2 and never looked back.

Rhett Lowder did his job for Cincinnati, going six innings and allowing two earned runs on four hits with three strikeouts — workmanlike, not spectacular, but enough. Scott Blewett was the story of the night for Oakland's bullpen, throwing two scoreless innings without allowing a hit, though it came too late to matter. Brock Burke was equally sharp for Cincinnati, striking out three over 1.1 hitless innings to close things out. The story of the night was that sixth inning: Oakland had the momentum, Heim had just erased a deficit, and then Marte immediately took it back. That's the kind of sequence that looks, in retrospect, like the entire game compressed into three at-bats. Cincinnati gets the 3-2 win and the Athletics, despite Butler's long ball and a bullpen that gave them every chance, leave empty-handed.