De La Cruz Sac Fly in 10th Lifts Reds Past White Sox

Cincinnati erased a four-run deficit without the benefit of a single walk from its starter, then won it in extra innings on an Elly De La Cruz sacrifice fly to center. The Reds took it 5-4 despite getting thoroughly outpitched for the first half of the game.

The story of the night was how completely Chicago controlled the early innings — and how completely that control evaporated. Brenton Doyle opened the scoring with a 415-foot shot to center in the first, Edgar Quero added a 378-foot homer to left center in the second, and by the fourth inning the White Sox had pushed it to 4-0 on a Miguel Vargas homer to left center (407 feet) and an Antonacci double to center that scored Grichuk. Nick Lodolo allowed all four of those runs across 4.0 innings, giving up 5 hits and striking out 5. Sean Burke, meanwhile, was dealing: 7.0 innings, 3 hits, 1 earned run, 0 walks, 8 strikeouts. On paper, this game looked over.

It wasn't. Eugenio Suarez cracked a 401-foot homer to left center in the fifth to put Cincinnati on the board at 1-4, and Luis Mey came out of the bullpen to throw 2.0 scoreless innings — 0 hits, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts — keeping the deficit manageable. The Reds' real damage came in the eighth. De La Cruz singled to right, scoring McLain and moving Toglia to second. Then Tyler Stephenson singled to right, scoring both De La Cruz and Toglia to tie it at 4-4. Grant Taylor held it there through the ninth and tenth for Chicago, allowing just 1 hit and 1 walk across 2.0 innings, but the damage was already done.

In the tenth, De La Cruz hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring McLain to make it 5-4 Cincinnati — and that's where the win probability numbers tell the real story. The home win percentage swung from 53% to 42% on that single swing of the bat, an 11-point shift that sealed it. What looks like the takeaway here: Cincinnati's bullpen did the heavy lifting that its rotation couldn't, and De La Cruz delivered twice when it mattered most, finishing 1-for-4 with 2 RBI and a run scored. The Reds stole one that, for four-plus innings, had no business being stolen.