'How fun was that?'

Matt McLain and Gavin Lux stood at their lockers in the aftermath of Tuesday's win over the New York Yankees and went back forth with each other about whose walk-off was better.

McLain beat the Dodgers in June of 2023 in the series that announced that the rebuilding Reds were ready to contend. He wore a bubblegum bucket as a helmet after his single in the ninth inning. Lux said that McLain’s walk-off in 2023 was the cooler one because it was in the bottom of the ninth instead of extra innings.

On Tuesday night, the Reds took the series against the Yankees with a 5-4 win over the Yankees that Lux ended with an 11th inning walk-off single. McLain said that Lux’s walk-off was cooler because of how easy he made the base-hit look coming off the bench.

The Dodgers’ series win at home carried a lot of meaning in 2023. McLain offered a parallel between that series win and the one that the 2025 Reds had just claimed over the Yankees.

“Momentum-wise, it feels similar,” McLain said. “But for sure, we’re a better team now.”

Why?

McLain went through how the Reds won Tuesday’s thriller. He pointed back to Lux, the man who ended the game and continued a standout season.

“It’s guys like (Lux),” McLain said. “We’re more experienced. The additions we’ve made in the offseason obviously are very important. We’re seeing that every single day. Chase Burns just joined us. Things like that. We’re a better team for sure.”

With Tuesday’s win over the reigning AL champs, the Reds improved to 42-38 on the season. The record is tied with the 2023 season for the Reds’ most wins through 80 games since 2013. This season is following a very similar path to what the Reds did in 2023.

Some breakthrough series that showed the team was turning a corner. A star prospect joining the mix. And a spotlight series against a blue blood franchise where the Reds signal that they’re ready to take the next step.

Tuesday’s win over the Yankees featured one of the most exciting debuts of the last 20 years for the Reds. Chase Burns became the first starting pitcher in at least the expansion era (1961) to strike out his first 5 batters faced in his MLB debut. But this game was about a lot more than the electric debut of a top-10 prospect who could easily develop into an ace.

There was a feeling in the ballpark that there hasn’t been enough of in the history of GABP. Games like this are why you follow the Reds.

The 2025 Reds, whose season was really slipping away a few weeks ago, are back in the playoff hunt and showing a new confidence.

“There was a thing (earlier this season) that we hadn’t come back late in games,” McLain said. “We had a meeting about it. A lot of those times, those are the most fun wins. It takes a lot to win those games.”

In a game full of theatrics on Tuesday, Burns was the star of the night. After pitching in just 13 minor league games, the Reds called him up to save an injury-riddled rotation. It was a huge ask for a 22-year-old who by his own admission is still adjusting to facing hitters who use wooden bats instead of metal bats. It’s an even bigger ask to call him up to face the Yankees.

Terry Francona said that calling up Burns so quickly into his professional career sent a message that the Reds are really trying to win. The hope was that the move would give the team a spark. That idea certainly translated into action. And having Burns face the Yankees sure worked a lot better than another bullpen game.

Burns used his opportunity against the Bronx Bombers to announce his arrival.

“He’s a dog,” teammate Nick Martinez said. “I knew that from the moment I saw him in spring training. He was commanding three pitches and keeping them off guard. He knows what he has got, and he works hard. It’s not a false confidence. He’s a dog.”

Burns, working on a pretty strict pitch count, was charged for three runs in five innings in his big league debut. But two of those runs scored because of a whiffed diving catch attempt in center field from TJ Friedl. Burns passed Tuesday’s big test with flying colors.

A few hours before the game, Burns was going through his advance meeting with Tyler Stephenson and pitching coach Derek Johnson.

Johnson asked, “Are you nervous?”

Burns said, “A little bit.”

Johnson said, “Good. You’re human.”

Later on, when Burns wrapped up his pregame warmup with Stephenson, the rookie pitcher told his catcher, “This is sick.”

Burns is a 22-year-old soaking it all in, but he didn’t look like it when he took the mound and struck out the top of the Yankees’ order to start the game. On the third strikeout, Burns got Aaron Judge to bite on a slider on the edge of the zone for strike two. Then, Burns finished the strikeout by getting Judge to chase the slider for strike three.

“I got chills,” Stephenson said.

Francona was at a loss for words describing Burns’ slider. The manager joked that he could kiss the Reds’ scout who identified Burns on the lips.

Burns then went on to strike out the side in the second inning, and he finished his big league debut with eight strikeouts in five innings. He became the second Red since 1900 with eight-plus strikeouts and no walks in his big league debut.

“He’s not afraid to pitch to anyone,” McLain said. “He’s attacking hitters. Sometimes, if you have really good stuff, you spray it and always get guys to try to swing and miss. (Burns) was daring them to hit it.”

Burns’ strikeouts had some character and showed some advanced qualities. He set pitches up. He pitched backwards. He worked back from two 3-0 counts on two strikeouts. He got two strikeouts with his changeup, which is the big new pitch that he focused on developing in his brief minor league tenure.

Then in the fifth inning, the Yankees had a runner on third with two outs. Judge was up. Burns was nearing his pitch count, and Ian Gibaut was up in the Reds’ bullpen.

It would have been very easy for Burns to pitch around Judge in this spot, give him the open base and live to fight another day. Instead, Burns challenged Judge with a first pitch fastball. Judge flew out.

“I just trust my stuff,” Burns said. “(Stephenson) said go out there and don’t change. I’m not going to change just because it’s a (specific) batter.”

Stephenson said, “At the end of the day, you go with your best pitch. 100 mph will play. He has confidence for sure.”

Burns’ debut was special. But because of Friedl’s mistake in the fourth inning and because the Reds continue to struggle against left-handed starting pitchers, Burns left the game with the Reds trailing by three runs. The score carried through the sixth inning. A few weeks ago, the Reds were winless in games that they were trailing after the sixth and didn’t have a single big late comeback win at that point all season.

The Reds addressed that in a players only meeting before the Diamondbacks series. Since then, the Reds have rattled off big comeback wins against the Diamondbacks, Tigers and Yankees.

Tuesday’s win versus New York was the best one yet. After Burns’ day was done, the Reds found some unexpected heroes.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand has looked bad at the plate. Since June 10, he was 3-for-28 with eight strikeouts. Francona kept him on the bench for the Reds’ entire weekend series against the Cardinals. On Tuesday, he was back in the lineup because the Reds were facing a left-handed pitcher.

The Yankees brought in right-handed reliever Jonathan Loáisiga in the seventh inning. With the bases loaded and Encarnacion-Strand up at the plate, the clear move on paper appeared to be bringing in Will Benson, Jake Fraley or Lux as a pinch-hitter.

Francona stuck with Encarnacion-Strand because Loáisiga has a great changeup that he mostly throws against left-handed hitters. Francona wanted Encarnacion-Strand to face Loáisiga’s sinker or curveball. The decision worked perfectly as Encarnacion-Strand tied the score with a bases clearing double.

The Reds tied the score in the seventh, but Francona couldn’t turn to his typical high-leverage playbook. Emilio Pagán and Scott Barlow, two of Francona’s three most-trusted relievers right now, were unavailable because they had pitched so much recently.

As a result, Francona had Brent Suter go out for a second inning of work in the eighth inning. Suter got two outs against the top two hitters in the Yankees’ lineup (both left-handed). Then, to face Judge, Francona brought in rookie Lyon Richardson.

When Richardson made his big league debut in 2023, he imploded and allowed homers on each of the first two pitches of the game. He has developed so much as a pitcher since then, embraced the move to the bullpen and now has a 1.85 ERA in 2025. Richardson challenged Judge and got him to groundout on a changeup (the pitch that Tejay Antone always hyped up when they were rehabbing from Tommy John surgery together in 2022). Richardson went back out for the ninth and got three more outs.

Tony Santillan, the standout setup reliever who now is tied for the second-most appearances in MLB this season, walked the bases loaded in the 10th and gave Judge another chance to hit. Like Burns did earlier in the game, Santillan challenged Judge with fastballs and forced him to fly out to end the inning.

For the 11th inning, Francona brought out Connor Phillips for his second appearance of the entire big league season.

On this exact day a year ago, the Reds moved Phillips from Triple-A all the way down to rookie ball because Phillips couldn’t throw strikes. The former top prospect’s frustration created some difficult hurdles that he had to get through. The Reds hoped that moving him back to rookie ball would give him a chance to reset.

“It was a really long year for me,” Phillips said. “I had a lot of work to do and a lot of things to fix. I’m a pretty confident person. But I’d be lying if I said at some point there wasn’t doubt that crept in. I struggled. I tried to fight through it.”

Phillips succeeded. He also transitioned to being a reliever, and Phillips impressed in Triple-A before earning a call back up to MLB last week.

Then in the 11th against the Yankees, Phillips made one small mistake. He threw a wild pitch that let the automatic runner score as the Yankees took a 5-4 lead. The game could have unraveled from there.

But Phillips rebounded and didn’t allow another run. He wound up getting the win.

In the bottom of the 11th inning, Elly De La Cruz hustled to beat out an infield single. Spencer Steer drove in the automatic runner with a game-tying single (De La Cruz looked like he thought the game was over and nearly ran into an out, but he recovered just in time to save himself from a terrible mistake. “Thank God Elly didn’t run into the out,” Stephenson said).

Following a walk by Tyler Stephenson, the Reds loaded the bases. Lux walked it off with a single.

The team stormed onto the field to celebrate the win of the year. De La Cruz jumped on top of Lux. McLain gave Lux a friendly shove as the players gathered around second base. Francona high-fived every single player.

At the end of it all, the manager found Burns. Francona asked him, “How fun was that?”