​The Cincinnati Reds’ series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals was the 3,912th game of future Hall of Fame manager Terry Francona’s career, and he agreed the game featured one of the wildest endings he’d ever seen.After the Reds took a 5-4 lead on a Matt McLain grand slam in the sixth inning at Great American Ball Park, the teams ended up combining for 10 runs in the ninth inning as the Cardinals took a stunning 10-9 win to claim the five-game set. Reds Cardinals Elly De La Cruz Reason No. 99.2 (mph) why Reds can’t give Elly De La Cruz a day offReds Cardinals Sal Stewart JJ Wetherholt Sal Stewart vs. JJ Wetherholt | Inside NL Rookie of the Year debateThe play that unleashed hell in the ninth inning might have been the final play of the game but for the degree of difficulty. With Reds reliever Brock Burke in to close out the game and the Cardinals’ JJ Wetherholt down to his last strike with two runners aboard, Wetherholt jolted a ball to the warning track in left-center field.But the sun was a factor, so center fielder Dane Myers ranged to his right, called off left fielder TJ Friedl and attempted to reel the ball in. It deflected off his glove and fell to the warning track. Two runs scored and the Cardinals had retaken the lead. “Shaded over a good bit. We had talked before the play. Anything in that gap with how we were shaded was supposed to be mine,” Myers said. “So, I know the sun may have been tough. Pretty loud for the last out of a game. I called him off and just didn’t make the play.” St. Louis ended up posting six runs in their half of the ninth. The Reds responded with four runs of their own, and a McLain line drive with the bases loaded and two outs required a tough catch from Jordan Walker to end the game. Four combined pitchers were used in the final frame, and 76 pitches were thrown. Sal Stewart singled to drive in two runs, giving him 96 RBI and allowing him to retake the MLB lead as of that moment. “TJ looked like he was fighting the sun and I was kind of glad that Myers called him off,” Francona said. “Just didn’t look it into his glove. Just glanced off.”All the activity stemmed from the unlikely misplayed fly ball by Myers, who Francona has been consistently complimentary of as an outfielder. Earlier in the series, Myers hit a ninth-inning home run to force extra innings on Aug. 17. The Reds eventually won.Myers had made dramatic, violent wall collisions look like routine outs during the season. On Aug. 20, the seemingly routine became inopportune and costly. There were other late factors in the Reds loss. On a batted ball ruled a hit later in the Cardinals’ half of the ninth, Michael Toglia allowed a chopper to skip into left field. As Burke’s pitch count crept up, his control wavered.Had the St. Louis rally in the ninth been extinguished earlier, perhaps the Reds’ riposte in the bottom of the inning could have been enough to win. It wasn’t to be. The Reds fell to 61-68 ahead of a nine-game roadtrip over 10 days through Au