Dane Myers’ Dropped Fly Ball Sparks Cardinals’ Stunning Six-Run Ninth in Wild 10-9 Win Over Reds

The Cincinnati Reds were one out away from a series-salvaging win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday. Then center fielder Dane Myers lost a routine fly ball in the sun, and everything unraveled in a matter of minutes. The Cardinals scored six runs in the top of the ninth inning to shock the Reds 10-9 at Great American Ball Park, capping one of the wildest finishes of the MLB season and closing out a five-game series win for St. Louis.

Myers, a 30-year-old short-side platoon outfielder who missed nearly three weeks earlier this summer with a left shoulder contusion, had actually been one of the Reds’ hottest hitters entering Thursday’s finale. He came into the game riding a stretch of two home runs in his previous seven games and was hitting .348 with a pair of homers against St. Louis in the series. None of that mattered once the ball found his glove in the ninth.

How the Ninth Inning Fell Apart

Cincinnati led 5-4 entering the final frame, thanks in large part to a Matt McLain grand slam in the sixth. Fill-in closer Brock Burke got within one out of locking down the win when Cardinals rookie JJ Wetherholt lofted a fly ball the opposite way to left-center field. TJ Friedl, who had entered as a defensive replacement in left field in the eighth inning, appeared to be fighting the sun on the play. Myers called him off and moved to make the catch, but the ball glanced off his glove and rolled to the wall.

The misplay opened the floodgates. Masyn Winn and Jose Fermin both scored on the error to hand St. Louis a 6-5 lead. Alec Burleson followed with an RBI single, and a bases-loaded walk made it 8-5. Fermin came back up later in the inning and delivered a two-run single to push the score to 10-5. In total, the Cardinals sent 11 batters to the plate and Cincinnati burned through four relievers and 76 pitches in the inning alone.

Reds manager Terry Francona, working in the 3,912th game of his managerial career, didn’t mince words about the sequence afterward. “TJ looked like he was fighting the sun and I was kind of glad that Myers called him off,” Francona said. “He just didn’t look it into his glove. Just glanced off.”

A Near-Miraculous Response Falls Just Short

Down 10-5 and seemingly finished, the Reds mounted one more push in the bottom of the ninth. Eugenio Suarez singled home Matt McLain to cut the deficit, and Sal Stewart followed with a two-run single that pulled Cincinnati within a run at 10-9 — while also pushing Stewart’s RBI total to 96 and briefly reclaiming the major league lead in that category. With the bases loaded and two outs, Reds reliever-turned-hitter McLain came to the plate representing the potential winning run, but Cardinals right fielder Jordan Walker tracked down his line drive to end the game and secure St. Louis’ 10-9 win.

The result completed a five-game, four-day series between the two clubs that had already produced its share of drama, including a same-game parlay built around Thursday’s finale. The Cardinals improved to 66-63 in the process. Cincinnati dropped to 61-67, extending a frustrating stretch for a team that had shown flashes of life with wins like Elly De La Cruz’s walk-off double earlier in the series. Francona called it among the hardest losses he’s experienced in a managerial career that spans parts of four decades, and the image of Myers’ glove failing to close will linger over a Reds club still fighting to stay relevant in the National League playoff picture down the stretch.

What It Means Going Forward

For the Cardinals, the win is a small building block in a season that has kept them within shouting distance of a wild-card spot, and taking the series finale in Cincinnati on the road is exactly the kind of result contending teams need in August. For the Reds, the collapse is a gut punch that overshadows genuine positives, including Myers’ own recent surge at the plate and McLain’s continued power production. Cincinnati will now try to regroup on the road, while the sting of a routine fly ball turning into a six-run inning is likely to stick with the clubhouse for a while.