Cincinnati Reds play with chip of last year's sting before falling 2-1 to champs on late HR

ARLINGTON, Texas — So this is what that World Series last year might have looked like.

This is what might have been for a group of young Cincinnati Reds players who felt the renewed sting of their final-weekend elimination with every round the Arizona Diamondbacks advanced to reach the Fall Classic against the Texas Rangers last October.

“It was really hard for me to watch the playoffs because I know that should have been us,” outfielder Will Benson said.

That was the consensus emotion expressed in the Reds clubhouse this spring after watching the Arizona team that eliminated them with a game left in the season sneak into the playoffs before marching to a World Series matchup against a Texas team the Reds swept at home last season.

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Whatever this series six months later looks like by the time it ends Sunday, the Reds showed up like they belonged at gaudy Globe Life Field — certainly now, if not then.

“There’s no question about that,” manager David Bell said after Friday’s taut 2-1 loss on Marcus Semien’s eighth-inning home run. “We’re beyond that. That doesn’t mean we’re beyond needing to improve. But we certainly feel like we belong.”

Both starters went at least six innings. Both bullpens played big roles — high-leverage Lucas Sims cracking only on the pitch for Semien’s one-out homer after escaping Graham Ashcraft’s one-out jam in the seventh.

“It was definitely one of the loudest games I’ve pitched in,” said Ashcraft, who pitched into the seventh for the first time since August and allowed only Evan Carter’s second-inning solo shot in the series opener.

“If that’s what playoff baseball feels like, that’s a hell of a game. That was fun to be a part of and fun to experience.”

The Reds did everything but win. Everything but get here in October.

Whether they get a chance to do anything about that last part, stay tuned for the next five months.

Meanwhile, they figure they’ve got a lot more noise to make — maybe even louder than the crazy-loud Rangers ballpark Ashcraft talked about.

And as much as the sting might have faded over the last six months, they haven’t forgotten October.

“I think it’s more motivating than anything,” Bell said. “Not frustrating, just motivating — like how every game matters through the course of a season. That’s something our team has talked about a lot, and I think going through the experience we went through last year was a big reason why.”

That’s how the second-year pitcher who would have been the Reds’ Game 1 rookie playoff starter last fall said he looks at it these days.

“It always helps to have that kind of drive coming in, finishing so close and then being able to have that starting point — something to focus on, like, ‘We were so close last year; now we know what we’ve got to do to get to that next level,’ “ said left-hander Andrew Abbott, who starts the Texas series finale Sunday.

“When you get a little taste of it, you don’t want to let go.”

Abbott is quick to point out this is a new season, and nobody expects to show up this year and compete just because they did last year.

But they also know they belong.

“I think we all remember how we ended last year,” catcher Tyler Stephenson said. “You’ve just got to use that as fuel for this year. You can’t dwell on the past. We’ve just got to continue to control the things we can control.”

Notes

When Elly De La Cruz scored the first run of the Reds-Rangers series Friday by stealing home on a first-and-third double steal, it gave the Reds two steals of home in April (also Spencer Steer on a similar play April 6). That's the first time in a single calendar month the Reds have had two steals of home since Joe Morgan and Pete Rose each did it in April 1978. ... Ashcraft's one run allowed in 6 1/3 innings Friday makes just three runs allowed in 12 1/3 innings (2.19 ERA) over two career starts against Texas, including his win during last year's sweep. ... The Reds were 4-for-4 on steal attempts Friday (including two for MLB leader De La Cruz), increasing their major-league-leading total to 49 in their first 26 games, putting them back on pace for a rare 300 season (305).

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Marcus Semien, Texas Rangers sink Cincinnati Reds 2-1 in series opener