'They were unbelievable': Bullpen carries Reds to 2nd straight win

CINCINNATI -- Multiple bullpen days over the past week were needed to cover a shorthanded rotation. It left the Reds’ pitching staff exposed heading into Monday.

The question was this: Would there be enough pitchers to get through the game? The answer, after a 5-3 win over the Astros at Great American Ball Park: Just enough.

“They were unbelievable today," said Reds first baseman Ty France, who went 4-for-4. "It’s that time of year where everybody is kind of gassed. For them to do what they’re doing, I have to tip my cap to them."

The latest desperation move manager David Bell made was to start rookie Julian Aguiar on three days' rest in just his fourth big league game. Here’s how it turned out

• Aguiar pitched 2 2/3 innings and allowed two runs, and he overcame a dropped popup by second baseman Jonathan India after he appeared to be distracted by shortstop Elly De La Cruz approaching in the first inning.

• Lefty Sam Moll worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings.

• Carson Spiers pitched 2 1/3 innings and allowed one run while throwing 65 pitches (33 strikes) for the win. Spiers, who last pitched on Friday, has now thrown 99 pitches over the past four days.

• Emilio Pagán pitched a season-high 2 1/3 scoreless innings -- his longest outing since he also went 2 1/3 on June 1, 2023, for the Twins against the Guardians -- and got the first two outs in the ninth inning. Closer Alexis Díaz was unavailable after working four of the previous five days.

• Justin Wilson picked up the final out for his second save.

“Beyond that, there was no one that we wanted to pitch, so we would have had to figure it out," Bell said. "The last thing you want is to overuse someone or hurt someone. There’s a lot of communication. We felt pretty good about that, but that’s only because of what these guys do, how they make themselves available and how hard they work to stay ready.”

For the second day in a row, role player Santiago Espinal provided the hit that put the Reds ahead. It was a 2-2 game in the bottom of the fifth against Justin Verlander when Espinal blooped a two-out, two-run single that dropped near the right-field line between three defenders.

In Sunday's 4-3 walk-off win over Milwaukee, it was Espinal's pinch-hit comebacker of a single off the pitcher that scored the winning run in the 11th inning.

“It means a lot to me, especially since they have given me the opportunity here. I’ve taken advantage," Espinal said. "I feel like it comes from my preparation and being ready to play. That’s all it is.”

Then it was up to those available pitchers to hold on to that lead.

Spiers issued back-to-back two-out walks in the sixth inning, followed by a single that loaded the bases. He escaped when Jason Heyward grounded out to Espinal at third base.

In the seventh with one out, Spiers walked Jose Altuve and allowed a Yordan Alvarez ground-rule double. Bell turned to Pagán from there.

"Given where we were at -- obviously I hadn’t thrown in two days -- I wanted to do everything I could to finish that game," Pagán said. "It would have had to take a quick inning at some point."

Yainer Diaz hit a sacrifice fly to make it a two-run game, but Pagán struck out Jeremy Peña to strand a runner at third. The quick inning Pagán wanted came in a 1-2-3 eighth.

In the ninth, Heyward hit a leadoff single and advanced on a bunt by Chas McCormick, who was thrown out at first by Pagán. Pagán struck out Altuve before Bell came to the mound and called for Wilson to face the lefty-hitting Alvarez.

"I even told [Bell], if he wouldn’t have made the call to the umpire before he got to the mound, I probably would have tried to fight him on it," Pagán said. "But I was going to wait until he got to me before I said anything. I didn’t want to show him up or anything."

At 66-73 and far from the postseason chase at this point, the Reds have won back-to-back games for the first time since winning four in a row Aug. 11-14. After that, they dropped 12 of 17 games.

None of that mattered to the Reds' bullpen on Labor Day. They were ready to work, and wanted to.

“We don’t have a choice," Pagán said. "We have who we have right now. We all signed up to play. We didn’t sign up to sit and watch the game. No matter what the team’s record is, no matter how our seasons are going both as a team or individually, at the end of the day we all fell in love with the game of baseball by playing the game."