Brandon Williamson stifled the newly crowned division champions over six brilliant innings while Elly De La Cruz moved to the brink of a historic 30/30 campaign.
The Cincinnati Reds shut out the Atlanta Braves 4-0 to open their series in Atlanta on Tuesday night. The Braves are fresh off a sweep over the Houston Astros, in which they clinched both a postseason berth and the NL East division title.
Left-hander Brandon Williamson got the start for Cincinnati, throwing one of the best games of his career: six innings, no earned runs, and just three hits. It was the second time he threw at least six innings without allowing a run this season, doing so in April before he suffered an injury. He has only done so three times in his career.
Williamson forced Matt Olson into a double play to get out of the first inning after throwing just 12 pitches.
Williamson got his first offensive support from Elly De La Cruz, who hit a home run over the right-field fence for his 29th home run of the season. De La Cruz now sits with 29 home runs and 29 stolen bases this season, closing in on a 30/30 season for the first time in his career. He stole his 29th base of the season against Sean Murphy in the first inning.
While De La Cruz hasn’t provided the same impact on the base paths, falling well short of the 67 stolen bases he had in 2024, he has had a better year offensively, especially with the long ball.
Dane Myers added a home run to make it 2-0 in the 6th inning, and De La Cruz singled to drive in the Reds' third run in the seventh. He sliced a hard-hit ground ball against the shift, landing just outside the reach of Ha-Seong Kim.
Left-handed reliever Brock Burke entered the game after Williamson and immediately faced a tough situation: runners on first and second and no outs, with Ozzie Albies at the plate. Burke forced a flyout from Albies, and then got Michael Harris II to ground into a fielder's choice setting up a first-and-third situation with two outs.
Eugenio Suarez lifted his 350th career home run over the center field fence late in the game to hand the Reds a 4-0 lead. Suarez is hitting .233 with a .900 OPS in September, with four home runs and five extra-base hits.
Tejay Antone loaded the bases with two outs, but eventually forced Matt Olson, the tying run, to pop up in foul territory down the third-base line to Ke’Bryan Hayes.
Emilio Pagan came in the ninth inning and sealed the victory for Cincinnati.
