The Los Angeles Angels handed the Cincinnati Reds a 9-6 defeat at Great American Ball Park on April 12, 2026, building an insurmountable lead through the early innings and holding on despite a late Cincinnati push. Los Angeles struck immediately, plating three runs in the first inning and adding two more in the second to open a 5-0 advantage before Cincinnati had found any footing. The Angels tacked on two more in the fourth and one each in the seventh and eighth, while the Reds managed only three runs in the eighth and three in the ninth — rallies that came far too late to threaten a well-constructed Angels lead.
The decisive swings in win probability came in the first two innings and defined the game's trajectory. Jorge Soler's sacrifice fly double play in the top of the second shifted win probability 10.9 points in Los Angeles's favor off Andrew Abbott, a play that both scored a run and removed base-running threats while the Angels were still building their cushion. On the other side, Spencer Steer's strikeout to lead off the bottom of the second against José Soriano carried a 12.2-point swing against Cincinnati, snuffing out any hope of an early Reds response. Elly De La Cruz's flyout to end the first inning also cost Cincinnati 8.0 points of win probability, as the DiamondIQ model's estimate of a Reds victory fell steadily from a pre-game 54 percent all the way to zero by the final out. Drew Pomeranz closed things out, with Sal Stewart's strikeout in the ninth representing a 6.3-point swing in favor of Los Angeles.
José Soriano was the standout performer of the night, accumulating 27.6 points of win-probability added across his outing — a dominant showing that anchored the Angels staff. Among position players, Soler led with a 10.7-point WPA contribution while Oswald Peraza added 9.8 points despite a pop out that itself swung 6.7 points toward Los Angeles, reflecting how effectively he set up scoring opportunities throughout the game. Mike Trout contributed 4.8 WPA points alongside a 1.6 RE24 mark, making him the most impactful run-environment performer among the Angels' batters. The DiamondIQ model's lean favored Cincinnati entering the game, but Soriano's performance and Los Angeles's burst of early offense rendered that projection obsolete by the middle frames.
Analysis generated by DiamondIQ's model.