Eugenio Suarez Speaks on Playing in St. Louis After Big Home Run

Eugenio Suarez has spent much of 2026 fighting through a season that started with more strikeouts than highlights, but his bat found exactly the right moment on Friday night at Busch Stadium.

Trailing 2-1 in the seventh inning, Suarez connected on a hanging slider from reliever George Soriano and launched it 435 feet to left-center for a two-run homer that gave Cincinnati a 3-2 lead it would not relinquish.

The Reds added an insurance run in the ninth when Sal Stewart singled home Elly De La Cruz, and Emilio Pagan locked down his 10th save to complete a 4-2 victory.

It was Suarez's 14th home run of the season and his fifth in his last eight games, a hot streak that has transformed his summer from a slow rebuilding year into something worth watching.

"I was lucky with that one," Suarez said. "I didn't take a big swing, I'm not trying to hit a home run."

Rhett Lowder gave the Reds five innings and allowed just one hit, though two runs crossed against him in the fifth when Busch Stadium's bottom half of the lineup came alive.

Blaze Jordan's double scored both Ivan Herrera and Nathan Church to put St. Louis ahead 2-1, and Lowder exited after five frames with a no-decision.

Manager Terry Francona praised the effort afterward.

"Lowder really pitched his rear end off," Francona said. "He gave up that one hit and really pitched well."

Lowder entered Friday with a 5.75 ERA through his first 14 starts of the season, numbers that have not lived up to the promise he showed during a brief debut in 2024.

Friday's effort was a step toward proving he still belongs in the rotation, and Francona's praise afterward reflected how much the team needed an outing like that from a young arm.

Julian Garcia earned the win with an out in the sixth that bridged the gap between Lowder and the late-inning bullpen, giving the lineup time to rally behind Suarez's blast.

Suarez was hitting .222 through mid-June, a number that reflected how lost he looked during the first two months.

He has since found a rhythm that Francona compared to another recent clutch moment from the Cincinnati lineup.

"Geno's home run was like Sal Stewart's the other day," Francona said. "You're losing, you're losing and you're losing and all of a sudden everything changes."

The victory improved Cincinnati to 48-54 and gave the Reds three straight wins for the first time since May heading into Saturday's middle game of the series.

De La Cruz, who swiped 37 bases and scored 102 runs across a full 162-game season in 2025, contributed a walk, a stolen base, and a run scored in the ninth, continuing to make an impact on the bases even on nights when his bat stays quiet.

With the front office facing questions about roster construction ahead of the trade deadline, performances like Friday's from Suarez and Lowder give Cincinnati a reason to believe the second half could look different from the first.