Friedl's HR robbery, speed spark Reds: 'He's what we want to be'

CINCINNATI -- Off the bat, everyone at Great American Ball Park on Wednesday night thought Ramón Laureano hit a two-run home run to give the Guardians the lead in the third inning.

Everyone except TJ Friedl, that is.

The ball left Laureano’s bat at 103.2 mph. It had a 73 percent chance of being a hit, per Statcast. But Friedl ran back to the deepest part of center field, timed his jump perfectly and reached over the wall before coming down with the ball to end the inning and strand a runner.

“It would've been a different ballgame if he didn't make that catch,” starter Andrew Abbott said.

But that was only the beginning of Friedl’s heroics in the Reds’ 7-2 win over the Guardians. He singled in the first, fourth and sixth innings, and he scored all three times to fuel a Cincinnati team in desperate need of a pick-me-up after a slow start to August.

“He's what we want to be as a team,” second baseman Matt McLain said. “The way he plays through his ups and downs, he’s always playing hard, and that's really what matters. And when he goes about it the right way, obviously he's a good player and stuff's going to show up.”

Friedl’s catch came at a perfect time for the Reds, but the timing was just as perfect for their outfield corps, too. Before the game, first-base coach Collin Cowgill set up a machine in right field to shoot balls just over the wall as the outfielders took turns practicing robberies.

When Friedl ran toward the dugout at the end of the third inning, no one was happier than Cowgill to see the practice pay off almost immediately.

"I'm running in, I'm looking at [Cowgill] and he's ecstatic," Friedl said. "And I'm looking at him like, 'We worked on that. That's 'cause we worked on that today. What are the chances?'"

It was the first time all season the Reds had done a drill like that.

"This was the first day, so now we're doing it every day," left fielder Stuart Fairchild said.

Friedl showed off his speed again in the fourth inning by stealing second base. Cincinnati leads the Majors with 139 stolen bases, and Friedl leads the team with 23.

In the sixth, Friedl once more exhibited his elite speed by beating out a bunt single to the pitcher, a skill he’s honed for years, he said. While most batters might shy away from bunting, Friedl embraces it and makes it part of his game.

“With my speed, kind of like a top-of-the-order guy, [I’m] getting on base in more ways than one,” Friedl said. “I'm not always going to be feeling good at the plate. I can’t always rely on hitting the ball hard, hitting home runs. I’ve got to have something in my back pocket for times when I'm not really feeling that good.”

Friedl finds himself as that top-of-the-order guy and one of the longest-tenured players on the Reds -- he had more career at-bats than all but two of the starting nine on Wednesday. But he’s only in his first full season in the Majors. Friedl was optioned five times in 2022. He was called up for the final time on Aug. 16, exactly one year ago.

As Friedl progresses through the early years of his career, manager David Bell and his Reds teammates and have only seen improvements. His star turn in the series finale was the culmination of what the center fielder has done so far, and it shows what he’ll be able to do next.

“He's still young in his career, it's still early,” Bell said. “He's continuing to get better, and I don't see that changing. He's going to keep finding ways to get better and [ways of] staying on the field and helping his team win. There's a lot of beauty in keeping it simple like that, and I think that's what allows TJ to come through at the biggest moments.”