Future now for Cincinnati Reds as rookies spark sweep of young Arizona Diamondbacks
Arizona Diamondbacks left fielder Corbin Carroll, the National League Rookie of the Year front-runner, got his pound of flesh before it was all over.
But it was the Cincinnati Reds’ cavalcade of rookies who owned the weekend in one of the biggest rookie showcase series in MLB this season — including a 7-3 victory Sunday that began with rookie Elly De La Cruz’s 407-foot home run in the first and finished with rookie Spencer Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand driving in all three Reds runs in a big eighth.
And then there was Reds rookie Matt McLain’s two-hit game Sunday on the heels of a combined 3-for-7 performance Friday and Saturday that included a homer in each of those victories — one of three consecutive by the Reds on Saturday, his other homer a grand slam on Friday.
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In a series that featured seven of the top 14 rookies in the majors (according to fangraphs.com WAR rankings), those four Reds rookies combined to go 12-for-31 (.387) with three homers, a double, three walks and 12 RBIs in the three games.
“A lot of the young kids, they’re just out there having fun playing baseball,” said fifth-year “veteran” Nick Senzel, whose two-out, two-run homer in the second gave the Reds a 3-0 lead Sunday.
“I think some of the older guys can learn a little bit about that. It’s just they play so free and easy. It’s like we lose a couple, it doesn’t faze them. And you can tell; it just doesn’t faze them.
“That’s what’s going to make them great.”
Carroll, who singled, walked and hit a two-run homer Sunday, was 3-for-10 with a pair of homers, two walks and two strikeouts in the series.
Beyond what any of that says about the Reds’ — or Diamondbacks’ — future, for the here it now it meant the seventh series sweep of the season for the Reds.
It also meant a five-game winning streak heading into a road trip that starts with three against their nemesis/bane, the Milwaukee Brewers -- whose lead in the NL Central is down to a half-game after they lost again to the Atlanta Braves.
The Reds have lost seven of nine to the Brewers as they open their final three-game set of the season against them.
“They’ve beaten us up,” Senzel said. “We’re excited to play them. We’re excited to kind of get back at them.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds beat Diamondbacks 7-3 for series sweep
