Jackson Holliday swats solo homer in loss

Cincinnati was down to their final out when Myers came off the bench to take Cardinals reliever Peter Strzelecki deep for an equalizing homer. The 30-year-old went deep in both games of Monday’s twin bill with his heroics in the nightcap setting up teammate Elly De La Cruz’s walk-off single in the 10th inning.

Walker notched his ninth three-hit performance of the season, while also picking up his 17th stolen base of the season in the process. The 24-year-old former top prospect has put it all together after struggling for a couple seasons at the outset of his big-league career. He’s blasted 24 homers and is three steals shy of joining the exlusive 20-homer, 20-steal club. That’ll work.

Lowder authored the longest start of his professional career, helping to spare Cincinnati’s bullpen during the nightcap affair of a twin bill at Great American Ball Park. The 24-year-old gave up eight hits, including a solo homer to Iván Herrera. He finished with five strikeouts and also issued two walks. He’ll close out a two-start week with a road matchup against the Diamondbacks on Saturday.

Pallante got the ball for the second game of Monday’s doubleheader and managed to somehow keep the ball in the yard, despite allowing 10 hits across six frames. He struck out five and only handed out one free pass. He gave up an early run before silencing Cincinnati into the sixth inning before surrendering three runs on hits from Michael Toglia and Héctor Rodríguez in the frame. He’ll face the Phillies to wrap up a two-start week on Saturday.

Díaz clubbed a game-tying solo shot off Orioles starter Brandon Young in the third inning and wound up reaching base safely in four of his five plate appearances out of the leadoff spot. The 35-year-old on-base machine is just two round-trippers shy of reaching the 20-homer mark for the third time in the last four seasons.

Encarnacion-Strand was a one-man wrecking crew in this one, connecting for a two-run homer against Rays reliever Tyler Wells in the fifth inning. It was his sixth round-tripper in 24 games since returning to the big leagues last month. The 26-year-old former top prospect has seemingly carved out a semi-regular role against left-handed starters and should continue playing regularly over the final six weeks.

Mayo crushed a gargantuan 468-foot moonshot off Rays lefty starter Shane McClanahan to kick off the scoring in the second inning. It was his 16th big fly of the season. The 24-year-old former top prospect continues to do serious damage against left-handed pitching. He’s been finding ways to get into the lineup between the infield corners and DH over the last couple weeks.

Alonso took former Orioles reliever Tyler Wells deep for a fifth-inning solo shot. The power-hitting 31-year-old has gone deep five times in his last eight games as he continues to inch closer to eclipsing the 30-homer mark for the sixth consecutive season.

Baker was tasked with converting a multi-inning save opportunity for the first time this season, ironically against his former organization. He managed to secure the final two outs of the eighth inning with Tampa Bay leading by one run at the time. He came back out for the final frame and managed to work around a two-out single from Christian Encarnacion-Strand to preserve the win. The 31-year-old journeyman leads the majors with 35 saves in 38 opportunities while also compiling a microscopic 1.47 ERA and 55/16 K/BB ratio across 49 innings of work.

McClanahan threw just 57 pitches in his return from the injured list, his first outing since hitting the shelf with mid-back tightness in late July. He surrendered four hits, including a second-inning solo homer to Coby Mayo. The positive news here is that he finished with three strikeouts and his fastball velocity was right in line with his previous season average at 95.6 mph. He’ll square off against the Orioles in a road tilt to close out a two-start week on Saturday.