'We lost it together': Reds come up short despite spirited comeback

CINCINNATI – A season ago, a late-inning Will Benson home run and bat flip would have been enough to cap a thrilling and improbable comeback. It also would've been entirely on brand for those fun and contending Reds.

That was so last year, unfortunately, for these 2024 Reds.

Cincinnati instead was handed a 9-6 loss by the A's on Wednesday at Great American Ball Park when Emilio Pagán gave up Seth Brown's three-run home run among the four runs and five hits he allowed in the top of the eighth inning.

“We lost it together. It’s nobody’s fault," said reliever Fernando Cruz, who pitched the first three innings of a bullpen game for the Reds. "Pagán, he’s the beast. He has given us a lot and has done a lot in this league. We just came up short, that’s it.”

Oakland scored twice in the top of the seventh inning to take a 5-0 lead, but the Reds battled back with six runs in the bottom of the seventh. Four-straight two-out hits culminated with Benson slugging a three-run homer to right field.

It was Benson's first homer since July 29 and his 13th of the season. Batting .193 with a .664 OPS this season, Benson entered the at-bat 4-for-27 (.148) with one RBI for all of August.

Last season, Benson led the Reds with a 129 OPS+, but entered the night with an 80 OPS+ in 2024 and has recently seen his playing time dwindle to where his previous at-bats came Saturday at Pittsburgh.

“It all matters, especially when it’s a hit or homer that helps your team come back and take a lead," Reds manager David Bell said. "That’s important to Will. He wants to do well. He also wants to help the team win. That can go a long way, to be rewarded for all the work and for how he’s fighting through this.”

Before his drive landed in the seats, a fired-up Benson had already flipped his bat and started yelling toward the Reds dugout -- something he did on multiple occasions during his breakout '23 season.

“After Will Benson hit the homer, I yelled hard," said Cruz, who opened the game with Lawrence Butler hitting a homer before pitching three innings with six strikeouts -- both career highs. "I think I passed out in the training room. Trainers went my way and picked me up because I passed out. That was the emotion I had. I yelled really, really hard.”

Pagán, who took a 6 1/3 scoreless innings streak into the top of the eighth, gave up a single and double to his first two hitters. Next was Brown, who drove a 2-2 pitch to center field for the emotional crusher of a homer.

As Brown circled the bases after his drive cleared the fence in center field, all Pagán could do was squat on the grass in front of the mound with his head looking down.

“I made, in my opinion, an inexcusable mistake," Pagán said. "I missed with a fastball in the zone to maybe their best fastball hitter in a spot where I had executed a couple of really good pitches to get to a two-strike count. I got the fastball above the zone twice. I sped him up with a cutter in. I had a lot of different ways to go and I threw the wrong pitch. And it sucks.

"Obviously, we’re battling basically for our playoff lives. Benson has that big swing. This story should have been more about what the offense did."

It was the Reds' ninth loss in their last 12 games as they dropped to a 63-70 record and 10 games back for the final National League Wild Card spot.

Only two weeks ago, the Reds had completed a three-game sweep of the Cardinals and were just one game below .500.

“Hopefully as an organization, we can build on it moving forward," Pagán said. "Not just this year but next year, two years. There’s a nucleus of guys here that’s going to be here hopefully for a long time and have really successful careers. It doesn’t make this in the moment any easier, especially with some of the expectations and goals we set out with. We can make all the excuses we want. At the end of the day, we haven’t executed at a high enough rate to this point.”