Dateline: Cincinnati
The 1990 Reds under Lou Piniella had the Nasty Boys, Randy Myers, Norm Charlton and Rob Dibble to nail down wins.
“We had seven inning games,” Piniella recalled. “If we had the lead in the seventh inning, it was slam the door baby,”
So far in 2026 manager Terry Francona has the “Grindstone Cowboys” to close wins, and hold the team in games until the offense can rally. This bullpen held in games14-0 when leading after six innings 2-0 when tied after six.
They grind when behind 6-1 comeback wins, through four wins that the team was behind after six innings or later, including, six wins in the last at bat.
They are 14-0 when leading after six innings.
The bullpen has kept the team afloat, while waiting for the offense to come around.
The “Grindstone Cowboys” saved 10 of the 18 wins, third best in baseball. and won nine games themselves, highest in Major League Baseball.
They are eighth in total appearances, 28 and are 13th with 108 1/3 innings pitched.
The Reds relievers are second in baseball with a 2.91 ERA. Opponents have a .201 batting average against them second lowest in the majors.
These stats indicate why the Reds have bolted to the National League Central Division lead, a division in which every team has a winning record. The .643 winning percentage is third behind the Atlanta Braves .690 and the Los Angeles Dodgers .679.
The bullpen allowed a team that is last in hitting .213, 27th in on-base-percentage .307 and 19th in runs scored 118 is that high in the standings.
Manager Terry Francona it's able to rely on them in the 11 games decided by two runs or fewer, including seven one-run games.
Five pitchers have saved games. Emilio Pagan leads with six, Connor Phillips, Tony Santillan, Graham Ashcraft and Brock Burke have one each.
“This bullpen throws the highest rate four seamer. You don’t see a lot of sinkers,” Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said before the three game series. “They come right at you. They throw 99 so why wouldn’t you. Pagan doesn’t really throw 99, Santillan will, Burke will, Phillips will. Ashcraft will throw 100 mile an hour cutters. Moll will spin it.”
These are the highlites for the Grindstone Cowboys.
Graham Ashcraft:
He’s pitched seven straight scoreless games. He’s retired 12 of the 14 batters to face him. Ashcraft has stranded all three of base runners inherited. He has not allowed a home run in 47 innings.
Ashcraft mainly works the seventh innings of games just like Randy Myers of the Nasty Boys.
Tony Santillan the setup man like Norm Charlton.
He had an 11 game scoreless streak snapped on Friday when he gave up two home runs. He retired the fist batter faced 9 of the 15 times. He’s retired stranded six of eight inherited runners.
Emilio Pagan:
He leads the team with six saves. He is fourth among MLB relievers with reliever with two wins. The closer as Nasty Boy, Rob Dibble was, has retired the first batter faced nine times in 12 attempts. He stranded both inherited runners. He is nine strikeouts short of 600 and 11 appearances short of 500.
Brock Burke, one of two left handers, has a five game scoreless streak. He earned his first career save on April 5, striking out the side in the ninth inning against the Texas Rangers. He has retired the first batter 10 times in 14 games. Four of the six runners inherited were stranded. Burke has a 0.68 ERA.
Pierce Johnson allowed a pair of runs Sunday to snap a nine game scoreless streak of 8 2/3 innings. He has 11 appearances without a walk.
Sam Moll:
The other left hander has retired nine of the 14 first batters faced. The first batter he faced in Sunday reached on an error. He retired 37 batters before giving up a hit. He stranded eight of 10 inherited runners.
Connor Phillips:
He leads the Reds with 15 appearances. He is second with 12 scoreless appearances. He retired nine first batters and stranded six of eight inherited runners. He earned his first career save against the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 30. Batters are hitting just .158 against him.
Jose Franco:
He has been a starter for Triple ALouisville. He rejoined the Reds on Saturday, replacing Kyle Nicolas. He made his first career appearance on March 30 against Pittsburgh. He made two starts at Louisville after making the opening day roster when Nick Lodolo and Caleb Ferguson started the season on the injured list. He gave up a two-run home run to Gleyber Torres on Sunday to increase his ERA from 3.18 to 4.70.
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