Inside the Reds' perfectly executed game plan in the fifth inning vs. the Cubs

CHICAGO –– Around noon on Sunday, Cincinnati Reds baserunning coach Collin Cowgill went over “base stealing scouting reports” with the Reds’ position players.

Before every game, Cowgill breaks down all the tendencies that a Reds’ base runner could pick up on to steal an extra base. On Sunday, Cowgill gave the Reds a tip about running against Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Drew Smyly. Then in the fifth inning, Reds shortstop Matt McLain turned that conversation into a game-changing stolen base in the Reds’ 8-5 win that got Cincinnati the series sweep.

The Reds’ two-run fifth inning was the turning point, and the inning was a combination of hustle plays, heads up moments and a perfectly executed game plan.

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“Everyone is really proud of how we’re playing, and how hard we’re playing,” Reds manager David Bell said. “I don’t see that changing ever with the guys we have. It’s a good feeling. We’ve got a long way to go. We’ve got a lot left yet to accomplish and ways we have to keep getting better. It’s a good feeling when guys feel this good about how they’re going about it.”

Here’s a breakdown of the four moments in the fifth inning that kickstarted the Reds’ comeback win.

1. Matt McLain wins the face-off vs. Smyly and takes second base and third base

During the team meeting before Sunday’s game, Cowgill called Smyly a “reader.”

“He’s staring at you,” Reds outfielder TJ Friedl said. “He’s waiting to see what you do, and then you decide what to do. CC’s biggest thing was saying, ‘If you’re going to go, you have to run on his first move. As you go, you got to haul to second base, try to get in a throwing lane, and make them make a perfect throw.’”

Following a single to right field in the fifth inning, McLain saw his chance to execute this play against the left-handed starter. As soon as Smyly lifted his right leg and started his pitching motion, McLain bolted for second base. Smyly saw McLain out of the corner of his eye, turned his pitch attempt into a pickoff attempt and made a throw to first base that would have easily picked off McLain.

Except McLain was bolting to second base. When Cubs first baseman Trey Mancini tried to catch McLain with a throw to second base, McLain slid in safely ahead of the tag.

“He put the pressure on them,” Bell said. “We have some speed. We really believe that it’s a big part of our game to be aggressive on the bases. Always look to try to advance. If it doesn’t go perfect, we get thrown out a time or two. We can’t let it take our aggressiveness away. With the at-bats our guys are having, we’re doing it a lot with singles and doubles, which is great, but it’s worth the risk to try and get into scoring position.”

Cowgill’s breakdowns are one of the most in-depth aspects of the pregame game planning process. He breaks down how a pitcher's timing changes on different counts and when they throw different pitches. His goal is to help the Reds pick up a few extra bases in every game.

But to make a play like McLain did, you also need to be an elite athlete.

“That’s a testament to McLain’s speed,” Kevin Newman said. “He’s a really, really fast runner. Smyly is really slow to first base, and we definitely took advantage of it.”

McLain wasn’t done. As he led off of second base, McLain was trying to bait Smyly into another throw. But McLain wasn’t expecting one. “He hasn’t picked in a long time to second base,” McLain said. “But he did, and I was ready for it. Then he threw it into center.”

Smyly’s throwing error gave McLain a free pass to third base, and he scored on a pinch-hit RBI double by Friedl.

2. Friedl comes off the bench to hit go-ahead double 

As McLain was running the bases in the fifth inning, Friedl was playing out different scenarios in his head. On a day when he wasn't in the starting lineup against a left-handed starter, Friedl knew that Bell wanted to call on him off the bench with runners on base against a right-handed pitcher.

“Right there, with two outs, I saw the right-hander (Jeremiah Estrada) warming up and stayed ready. I saw the pitching change, and (Bell) asked if I was ready to go. You’ve always got to stay ready for the opportunity to pinch-hit.”

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Estrada is one of the Cubs’ best relievers, entering Sunday with a 2.08 ERA. As Friedl anticipated that at-bat, he reflected on his experience facing Estrada on Saturday. In the second game of the series, Estrada threw Friedl five straight fastballs, and the toughest ones to hit were up-and-away.

In the third game of the series, Friedl was expecting more fastballs. On the first pitch of the at-bat, Friedl took an inside fastball for strike one. Then, he watched an up-and-away fastball land outside of the strike zone to get to a 1-1 count. Friedl was ready for an inside fastball for the third pitch of the at-bat, and he crushed a double that was 105.1 mph off of Friedl’s bat.

“One advantage of not starting TJ, which hasn’t happened a lot, you get that at-bat off the bench. But that doesn’t make it easy to do what he did,” Bell said. “He’s playing great. He’s a big part of our team. Kind of leading the way as far as how hard we play. A lot of guys are.”

3. Kevin Newman works a 13-pitch walk with the bases loaded

During Newman’s plate appearance with the bases loaded in the fifth inning against Estrada, nearly every Reds’ player was standing against the dugout rail. Newman fouled off eight pitches, and his teammates clapped after each one as Newman stayed alive in the at-bat during a crucial moment in the game.

With the Reds up by one run, Newman watched the 13th pitch of the at-bat for ball four to give the Reds’ a two-run lead.

“That was a sick at-bat,” McLain said. “He was fighting off tough pitches. He wasn’t giving in. Then he won the battle. At-bats like that are what really charge a team. It was fun to watch.”

Talking with the coaches after the game, Bell cited a few moments that he felt won the Reds the game. Newman’s walk was a big one. It extended the rally, forced the Cubs to take out one of their best relievers and rewarded Newman for his patient approach at the plate.

“I saw the fastball well out of his hand,” Newman said. “I knew he had a slider too. I didn’t see the slider there at the end but I was trying to stay on both. With the confidence I had in being able to foul the fastball off, I knew I was close. I had a feeling he was going to spray one late (for ball four) in the at-bat. It took a bit longer than I thought it was going to. I took the walk.”Estrada threw Newman 13 straight fastballs, but Estrada moved the pitch all over the strike zone. By the end of the at-bat, Newman was reading the fastball perfectly, and the walk was his biggest moment in a game where Newman reached base five times.

“To win the battle at the end, he was battling a guy with a great fastball,” Friedl said. “He kept fighting pitches off. For him to get a bases-loaded walk out of that, he had an amazing day. That was one of the more unbelievable at-bats that you’ll see.”

4. Graham Ashcraft’s double play to end the bottom of the fifth

Reds starting pitcher Graham Ashcraft entered Sunday’s game in the middle of the most frustrating stretch of his career, posting a 12.98 ERA over his previous four starts. Then in the second inning against the Cubs, he couldn’t locate his slider, left one cutter over the middle of the plate and let the Cubs take a 3-2 lead.

Ashcraft, who allowed three runs in five innings, called Sunday a “grind game.” He didn’t throw a single sinker and wasn’t getting consistent results with any of his pitches, but he still picked up the win.

It all came down to a cutter that he threw to Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki to end the bottom of the fifth inning. With a runner on first base and a reliever warming up in the bullpen, Suzuki rolled over a great cutter from Ashcraft for an inning-ending double play against arguably the Cubs’ best hitter this season.

Ashcraft responded by flexing, shouting and slapping his mitt.

“Graham worked his butt off all day and had some tough battles with some tough hitters,” Friedl said. “In that tough situation, he got a ground ball double play.”

Before Ashcraft threw that second-pitch sinker, he thought back to his matchups against Suzuki from 2022. Ashcraft remembered a lot of ground balls from Suzuki against Ashcraft’s cutter, and that detail came up against as Ashcraft prepared for the start.

That detail paid off and helped Ashcraft get his two biggest outs of the game.

“That was as well-written up as it can be,” Ashcraft said. “We made it count when we needed to.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How the Reds executed their game plan in the fifth inning vs. the Cubs