Vargas Triple Ignites Five-Run 7th, ARI Stuns CIN 5-3

Arizona was down three runs heading into the seventh inning and won anyway. Ildemaro Vargas's two-run triple to center was the kill shot, swinging the home win probability from 62% to 87% in a single swing.

Cincinnati looked like it had this one locked up early. In the third, Sal Stewart singled to right to score De La Cruz, and then Eugenio Suárez followed with a single to left that plated both Stewart and Dane Myers — suddenly it was 3-0 Reds, and Andrew Abbott was cruising on the mound. Abbott went the full six innings, striking out six, but the four earned runs he allowed tell you the back end of his outing got messy. Arizona chipped away with a Moreno sacrifice fly in the sixth that scored Corbin Carroll, making it 3-1, and the game started to feel less settled than the scoreboard suggested.

The seventh inning is where this game was won and lost. Arizona sent up a parade of hitters and Cincinnati's bullpen couldn't hold the line. A groundout by Nootbaar — not even a hit — scored Tawa and moved runners to second and third, cutting the deficit to 3-2. Then Vargas stepped in and tripled to center, scoring both Lawlar and McCann to flip the lead to 4-3. Carroll added a sacrifice fly to right to score Vargas and push it to 5-3. Five runs, no home runs, just relentless contact and situational hitting. That's a blueprint.

The story of the night was Arizona's refusal to let the early deficit define the game. Vargas finished 2-for-4 with 2 RBI and a run scored. Carroll went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Tim Tawa added a 2-for-4 night and scored the run that started the seventh-inning avalanche. On the Cincinnati side, Stewart (2-for-5, 1 RBI) and Myers (2-for-4) gave Abbott some run support, but it appears the Reds' bullpen simply didn't have enough to protect a three-run lead for nine outs. Taylor Clarke closed things out with 1.1 scoreless innings — zero hits, zero walks, one strikeout — and that looks like exactly the kind of clean finish Arizona needed after the chaos of the seventh. Final: ARI 5, CIN 3.