I love Carlos Santana.
And I'm OK with that. Really.
I love him for silently sitting at his stall, playfully bouncing one of his four children on his right knee while still in uniform, long after the Pirates had again ripped up the Reds, 2-0, to cap a four-game sweep, to extend a seven-game winning streak and, oh, by the way, to rise up into first place in the National League's Central Division:
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I love him for executing the classic big-man steal in the eighth inning ...
... then for scoring what sure felt like a vital insurance run as a result on Jack Suwinski's double:
I'm loving everything he's brought to Major League Baseball's most stirring story, with this team now 16-7 and second in the entire sport only to the ridiculous Rays at 19-3, from his healthy .253/.333/.422 slash line to his two home runs and 12 RBIs, to his fearless style of first base that's seen him take bouncers off his barreled chest like bullets off a Kryptonian, to that mega-meeting he'd arranged in Bradenton, Fla, which ensured everyone knew who was leading and how the rest should follow to ... eh, I'll let Connor Joe describe this last one.
"He's the guy, man. Carlos is just the guy," Joe was telling me after this game. "We've got leaders. He's a leader."
And yet, I've never loved Santana more than with his answer when I asked him to help me explain the entire sequence that included his above steal.
"That's what happens when you're winning," he'd reply, as if he were looking at an apple and identifying it as an apple. "That happens. That."
Mm-hm. Believe it or not, in the moment he spoke it, that made sense to me. For the simple reason that, in my lifetime of covering sports, it's been my experience that success begets further success. Winning begets winning. It takes on a life, a momentum, a drive of its own.
To wit, here's Ke'Bryan Hayes blasting a 105.4-mph leadoff double off the wall in right-center, this by turning hard on 97.7-mph Hunter Greene heat, which led to the first run:
Hayes has hammered nearly everything throughout this opening month, but his reward's been a meager .227/.281/.375 line with a solitary home run. Until lately, when the ball's finally begun falling at a .313 clip -- 15 for 48 -- over the past dozen games.
How'd he stay sane?
"Honestly, it's because we were winning," he'd tell me afterward. "It's just different. In the past around here, if you struggled individually, you'd really feel it. Because the team wasn't winning, and you'd feel like that was on you. Now, we can stay positive, focus on the good things we're doing individually and just keep at it. ... Yeah, it's totally different."
Vince Velasquez had his own lousy start to the season, but this sterling performance -- seven zeroes, two hits, two walks, 10 strikeouts -- was his strongest of three really good ones in a row. And his feel for that was much the same as Hayes'.
"I don’t think there’s anything better," Velasquez would say, "than coming into a game like that, sweeping the series and giving a couple bullpen guys days off and then letting the guys on the back end come in and close the job.”
The one-run lead carried into the eighth, when Colin Holderman conceded pinch-hitter Tyler Stephenson's one-out double. The top two in the Reds' order, Jonathan India and TJ Friedl, are both batting .300-plus, so the looming threat was real.
As real as Holderman freezing India on a criminal slider that started in off the plate ...
... then getting Friedl to ground out on a hard sinker:
How'd Holderman hold up?
He cited the conversation we'd had the other night when he was similarly challenged by the Reds only to rear back for a little extra.
"I had that in my mind," he'd tell me after this one. "I'd just done it, and I could do it again."
Success, meet more success.
In the bottom of that inning, Santana reached on a check-swing single to drawn-back third baseman Jason Vosler and, after a late start because he'd thought the ball went foul, he had to bust it with every fiber of his 5-foot-11, 220-pound frame to beat the throw. Upon arrival, sensing what a scene that must've been for his mates back in the dugout, he triumphantly raised both arms in their direction.
After which, as if to run up the score, he stole second. Easily.
How'd he do it?
"I've got a green light," was all Santana would give me, albeit with a broad grin.
I dug more deeply and discussed this with both Derek Shelton and Don Kelly, and both credited Tarrik Brock, the first base coach, for making the call based on something he'd seen. No one confirmed that it was a pattern picked up from Cincinnati reliever Fernando Cruz, but Suwinski would steal third just as easily off Cruz later in the inning, so it's a fair assumption.
Know when they last saw Cruz?
Right. When clubbing him in the season opener in Cincinnati.
David Bednar then gets to take the mound for the ninth with a two-run lead and a bit of room for error before rifling through the heart of the Cincinnati order for his eighth save, to the delight of the standing, roaring 11,372 on hand:
It's not just anecdotal or intangible, either. Because hitters like Joe, Suwinski and Rodolfo Castro have stepped up, Shelton's better able to manage a daily lineup, so that everyday guys don't get driven into the ground. And with the pitching staff ... wow, the starters now have not only 12 quality starts in their past 13 but also an average of 5.56 innings that's No. 1 in the majors. The impact of all that success, both in the short and long term, on the vibrancy of this dynamic bullpen is immeasurable.
It's fun, huh?
"Oh, man. I can't even tell you," Joe would say of that effect when I brought it up. "Even during the games, you feel it. You're out there feeling like someone else has your back, that they'll pick you up."
"It just changes everything," Hayes would say to the same subject. "You're on your toes. You're alert. You're sharp. You feel like every little thing you do out there matters."
Fun?
"Fun? Man, I love winning. Winning's all I've ever done in my life till these last couple years. This is what it's all about."
That, and what it begets.
As Castro worded it when I came to him, "Winning is great. Everything is great. But now, we need to do more winning. Who's next?"
Dodgers, I reminded him.
"Let's go. Dodgers next."
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Jack Suwinski drives an RBI double into right field in the eighth inning.
• The Brewers lost, 12-5, to the Red Sox in Milwaukee, allowing the Pirates to take first place by a half-game. I'm still of the mind that the Cardinals will wind up taking the Central -- it's not like there isn't precedent -- but hey, this, too, is fun, right?
• The promotion of 33-year-old minor-league lifer Drew Maggi is quite the story, as Chris Halicke tells it, even if Maggi didn't make it into the game. On top of that, it's a razor-sharp, culture-awareness move by Ben Cherington. Lifts the whole system up to see that. Good stuff.
• The cameo spot was created by Bryan Reynolds' placement on the bereavement list due to the passing of a family member. He's expected back for the next game Tuesday.
• Three sweeps so far, two of them on the road in Boston and Denver, and now this. The only team to sweep the Reds so far this season ... is the Pirates. Even the Rays didn't sweep them. Stop trying so hard to be unhappy. Life's too short for that crap.
• All hail management's reversal on punting. This is exactly what I thought it could be like if they didn't punt. (Well, OK, not quite to this extreme.)
• All hail Oscar Marin. The evidence mounts that he's the common denominator in all this pitching. Good for him. He's found his groove.
• All hail Andy Haines. If only because we're seeing Suwinski and Castro walk. And we were seeing it from Oneil Cruz, too. That's to the hitting coach's credit.
• All hail Pitch Clock. Because.
• I'll just leave this here: Ji-Man Choi wanted no part of any 60-day IL placement, and yet that's where he wound up as part of the above transactions.
• I'll just leave this here, too:
16-7.
— Roberto Clemente Jr (@RClementejr21) April 23, 2023
• Thanks for reading my baseball coverage. I'll be focused hard on the Steelers and the NFL Draft the rest of the week. Or not. Candidly, I really want to be here all week long. We'll see.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
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• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 15-day injured list: RHP Chase De Jong (lumbar spine), Rob Zastryzny (elbow)
• 60-day injured list: 1B Ji-Man Choi (Achilles), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Tucupita Marcano, 2B
3. Andrew McCutchen, DH
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Jack Suwinski, LF
6. Rodolfo Castro, SS
7. Canaan Smith-Njigba, RF
8. Ji Hwan Bae, CF
9. Jason Delay, C
And for David Bell's Reds:
1. Jonathan India, 2B
2. TJ Friedl, LF
3. Spencer Steer, 3B
4. Jake Fraley, RF
5. Wil Myers,1B
6. Stuart Fairchild, LF
7. Jason Vosler, 3B
8. Jose Barrero, SS
9. Luke Maile, C
THE SCHEDULE
Dodgers next, as Castro declared. Next up's a three-game home set with the billion-dollar Los Angeles roster, beginning Tuesday night with Johan Oviedo facing Noah Syndergaard. First pitch 6:35 p.m.
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