Fairchild hits Reds’ first pinch-hit inside-the-park HR since 1977

SAN FRANCISCO -- Mired in an eight-game skid and a team-wide slump at the plate, the Reds badly needed a jolt of energy as they headed on the road to kick off a three-city, 10-game West Coast road trip.

Stuart Fairchild may have given his team just what the doctor ordered in Friday's series opener at Oracle Park.

With a one-run Cincinnati lead and two outs in the eighth inning, Fairchild entered as a pinch-hitter and provided some electrifying insurance in the form of an inside-the-park home run, racing around the bases at a 28.8 feet-per-second clip. He became the first Reds batter to hit a pinch-hit inside-the-parker since Champ Summers on June 12, 1977, vs. the Expos.

The Reds didn't end up needing the extra run to beat the Giants, but it put an exclamation point on the 4-2 victory as the team entered the win column for the first time this calendar month. The eight-game losing streak was Cincinnati's longest since it dropped nine straight from late April to early May in 2022 -- part of the club's infamous 3-22 start to the season.

"When you have a dugout full of players that want to win so bad and want to do it for one another … even through this tough stretch, it makes it manageable," manager David Bell said. "You have so much support around you, and you know you're going to get through it. And when it does happen, it's nice to see everybody enjoy the time together."

The Reds' slumping offense, which entered the day batting a Major League-worst .211, did just enough against Logan Webb, plating three runs on eight hits vs. the Giants' ace.

Spencer Steer led the charge with a pair of RBI knocks, a double in the first and a single in the third that tied the game. TJ Friedl gave Cincinnati the lead with an RBI double in the fourth, his first extra-base hit since returning from a right wrist fracture on Tuesday.

Like Webb, starter Andrew Abbott navigated through traffic on the basepaths, scattering six hits and a walk in five innings of two-run ball. He departed with a 3-2 lead, a somewhat tenuous situation given the Reds' 1-7 record in one-run games this season.

Thanks to Fairchild, Cincinnati had a little more of a cushion in the final two innings.

"One-run leads are a little more pressure-involved, like every pitch you have to super-focus, you have to super-analyze the hitters," Abbott said. "With the two-run [lead], you kind of have a little more wiggle room, but you still have to stay on it."

When Fairchild stepped in against Giants lefty Erik Miller and launched a 2-2 four-seamer to deep left-center, he thought he got all of it -- which is why he initially took his time running out of the box, taking 4.89 seconds to go from home to first.

Rounding first, he saw the ball drop, then bounce into center field, past the Giants outfielders who had been tracking it down.

"When I saw it take that crazy hop, I was full-speed ahead," Fairchild said. "The only thing in my mind was, 'Let's go all the way,' and once I saw [third-base coach] J.R. [House] wheeling me around third, I was like, 'OK, we've got to do this.'"

When Fairchild slid into the plate, he had rounded the bases in 15.06 seconds, the second-fastest home-to-home time in the Majors this season behind only his teammate Elly De La Cruz (14.96 seconds on April 8 vs. the Brewers).

One day after the Reds ran into some outs on the basepaths to cap an 0-6 homestand, the running game once again played a large role.

Before Fairchild's inside-the-parker, De La Cruz swiped two bags to put himself in position to score on both of Steer's run-scoring hits in the first and third innings. He became the second Major Leaguer this season to steal multiple bases in three consecutive games, joining the Nationals' Jacob Young (April 27-29).

De La Cruz's stolen base marked just the 13th time since 1901 a player has stolen at least 25 in his team's first 38 games. The most recent player to do that was Kenny Lofton, who stole 28 in that span with Cleveland in 1996.

"That's part of our identity," Fairchild said. "That's how we're going to win a lot of games this year, and we're really good at that. We don't ever want to lose that part of our game and our identity."