Josh Rojas, Arizona Diamondbacks rally for 4 runs in 9th, beat Cincinnati Reds

CINCINNATI — Over the span of a handful of batters on Thursday afternoon, the Diamondbacks changed the tenor of their road trip, shifting it from a disappointment in the making to one that maybe, just maybe, won’t be so bad after all.

“You lose that game, it’s a completely different feeling here,” said third baseman Josh Rojas, whose two-run single keyed the Diamondbacks’ 5-4, come-from-behind win over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.

“You might have some panic, even for myself. If I don’t get a hit there, I’m hitting the cage tomorrow early trying to figure out what’s going on. You get a hit like that, now I don’t even know if I need BP tomorrow.”

Rojas put together a tough at-bat against Reds closer Tony Santillan, fouling off three consecutive full-count pitches before shooting a 98 mph fastball into center field.

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The Diamondbacks trailed, 3-1, to start the ninth. They appeared destined to drop their third game in four days to the Reds after losing two of three to the Pirates in Pittsburgh to open the trip. Both teams are seen as National League bottom feeders, teams that the Diamondbacks ought to be able to beat if they intend to hang around in the wild-card race deep into the season.

Of course, dropping four of seven to those teams is not good, and it is possible these are games the Diamondbacks, who are 28-31, will look back on with regret if they fall short. That said, winning three is better than winning two.

“It’s such a crazy game,” Rojas said. “It’s all about results. Results change your feels. When you get good results like this, even if it was late in the ninth inning, it completely changes the mood and how you feel going into the next game, the next series.”

The Diamondbacks can only thank the Reds for the way things transpired. The Reds made two costly mistakes — and the Diamondbacks capitalized on each. After Pavin Smith walked, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Alek Thomas’ single, manager Torey Lovullo called for a sacrifice.

Geraldo Perdomo’s bunt — firm and right back to the mound — was not a good one, but Santillan threw wide of second, pulling shortstop Kyle Farmer off the bag. Both runners were safe. After Daulton Varsho followed with a successful sacrifice, Rojas came to the plate with runners on second and third and one out.

Just before he went on deck, Rojas got a quick report on Santillan from Smith, who faced him earlier in the inning. He told him Santillan’s slider was hard and short, more like a cutter, and Rojas decided to focus on hitting Santillan’s fastball and reacting to the slider.

“I didn’t have to sit on (the slider) to try to hit it,” Rojas said. “If it was a pitch that I felt like I had to cheat to hit, I would have been in a really tough spot. I would have had to think about the slider when the guy was throwing 97.

“I felt like I was in a really good spot. I hit a fastball hard and luckily found a hole.”

The Reds had one more mistake in them. With the bases loaded later in the inning, David Peralta hit a grounder to second baseman Matt Reynolds, who could have thrown home to for the force had he not double clutched. He then took the sure out at first, allowing another run to score, making it a 5-3 lead for the Diamondbacks.

The run turned out to be important when Reynolds connected for a solo homer off Ian Kennedy in the bottom of the inning.

“We were just trying to play fundamental baseball and they made some mistakes and we made sure to capitalize,” Rojas said. “I think that’s been the story of the year, capitalizing with runners on base, capitalizing on mistakes.”

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Josh Rojas' single sparks Diamondbacks 9th-inning rally over Reds