CINCINNATI — With his team down to its final out, Michael Harris, the reigning National League Rookie of the Month, stepped to the plate. He has had many big moments since the Braves called him up a little more than a month ago.
This might have been the most clutch moment of them all.
Harris blasted Hunter Strickland’s first pitch 425 feet to right field for a solo blast that tied the game. The ball left the park minutes after Marcell Ozuna led off the ninth with his own shot against Strickland.
Out of nowhere, the Braves, who saw a one-run lead turn into a two-run deficit in the bottom of the eighth, had come back and grabbed new life.
Just as quickly as all of that happened, the Braves lost a game.
Cincinnati’s Albert Almora Jr. hit a walk-off single off A.J. Minter in the bottom of the ninth. The Braves lost, 4-3. They ended their road trip with a 4-2 record.
Minter gave up a leadoff single before walking one batter and hitting another to load the bases. That’s when Almora hit a ball that scored the winning run.
One key play in the ninth: Minter had appeared to catch Tommy Pham stealing. He threw to Matt Olson, who fired to Dansby Swanson. Swanson, one of baseball’s best defensive shortstops, dropped the ball and couldn’t apply the tag.
Charlie Morton had a no-hitter until Max Schrock grounded the first pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning into center field. Regardless, Morton, with his team up only a run, didn’t let this derail him and easily completed the seventh inning.
Then the Reds scored three runs off Collin McHugh in the bottom of the eighth in what was their best offensive inning of the series. After getting an out, McHugh allowed three straight singles and a double. Matt Reynolds, who hit the third single, tied the game. Brandon Drury, who laced the double, plated two runs to put Atlanta in a two-run hole.
Morton, who has had an up-and-down season, put together what is probably his best performance of the year. He held the Reds to that one hit over seven innings, striking out 10 and walking one. He threw 94 pitches, and 62 of them were strikes. Sunday marked Morton’s third scoreless outing of the season.
The Reds’ Luis Castillo, who seems likely to be traded to a contender, hurled seven innings of one-run baseball. The Braves collected six hits off Castillo but couldn’t notch the big hit.
Ozuna cranked a home run to left field off Castillo with two outs in the fourth inning. For most of this game, it seemed that Ozuna’s homer might be enough.
Morton dominated. The bullpen set to protect the lead behind him had pitched well with closer Kenley Jansen on the injured list due to an irregular heartbeat.
Before Sunday’s eighth inning, McHugh hadn’t allowed a run in his previous 5 ⅔ innings. He went to the COVID injured list in June, but returned and started to pitch well.
He coughed up the lead in the eighth, but Ozuna and Harris picked him up in the ninth.
Then the Braves saw the winning run score not long after that.
