CINCINNATI — Baseball is, above all else, a game of clichés.With 162 games played during a year, there are stretches where there’s very little new to say. That’s never more true than when things aren’t going a team’s way. To be generous, things haven’t gone the Cincinnati Reds’ way recently. The team entered Saturday losers of seven of their last eight and 11 of their last 14. Friday night’s loss featured a costly error by outfielder Blake Dunn, resulting in the go-ahead run scoring in the ninth inning of an eventual loss.After every error or 0-for performance at the plate, players will often point out — in almost the same wording each time — that “there’s another game tomorrow.”That next game may not offer immediate redemption, or even worse, it may, and the result doesn’t change. Then there are days like Saturday, when several Reds players capitalized on those redemption chances in a 2-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.“It’s a crazy game, and you have to move on,” Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson said. “We play every day. If you live in the past, this game is going to eat you up, and you’ve got to stay positive and move forward.”The Reds won Saturday in part due to the idea that each day is a fresh slate, a fact embodied by (at least) three Reds, not even including starter Rhett Lowder, whose 5 2/3 innings were the most he’s pitched since April.Noelvi MarteNoelvi Marte has had his fair share of second chances, and the way he’s approached each one is a big reason why he’s gotten more.Marte came up at the end of the 2023 season and looked like the superstar the Reds had hoped they’d traded for a year earlier at the deadline, earning himself a spot on the Opening Day roster for 2024. Then a failed drug test sidelined him for 80 games, and upon his return, he was nowhere near the player the team had hoped he’d become.Marte started the 2025 season in the minors before earning his way back up to the big leagues and performing well after a switch to the outfield.Noelvi Marte’s eighth-inning home run was the game-winner for Cincinnati on Saturday. (Dylan Buell / Getty Images)The 2026 season started with Marte as the Reds’ right fielder, but a slow start earned him a trip back to Triple A, where he worked on his approach and showed immediate results. Since coming back from the minors a second time, he’s put up a .907 OPS over seven games and 21 plate appearances entering Saturday. A small sample, to be sure, but a far cry from the player who had just four hits in 11 games and 31 plate appearances to start the season.With one out in the eighth inning of a 1-1 game Saturday, Marte belted a 0-2 slider from reliever Juan Morillo to left-center field. He hit it 104.8 mph off the bat, but it was to one of the deepest parts of the park. The way things have gone for him — and the team — he didn’t even think about celebrating the ball off the bat.“I felt like the ball went deep — but I saw the guys earlier in the game like (Spencer) Steer and Sal (Stewart), they hit the ball well, but the ball did not leave (the park), so I started running,” Marte said, according to interpreter Tomás Vera. “I decided I’d run the best I can and see how far I could get, but thank God the ball went out.”Edwin ArroyoWith the Reds trying to hold on for the win in the ninth, Arizona’s designated hitter, Gabriel Moreno, hit a routine grounder to shortstop Edwin Arroyo, a rookie who has played mostly shortstop all of his life until reaching the big leagues, where he’s started five games at second base and made just his second start at shortstop in the majors on Saturday.Arroyo fielded the ball hit in front of him to his right cleanly, but he pulled the throw to first — a throw he’s made thousands of times in his career — and was bailed out on a diving play by first baseman Spencer Steer. Steer, a Gold Glove finalist at first base last year who has moved all around the field this year, dove to catch Arroyo’s throw and somehow kept his foot on first base, much like a wide receiver dragging a toe on a sideline catch.Arroyo’s shot at redemption came two pitches later when Diamondbacks third baseman Nolan Arenado hit a similar grounder to his left, took a split-second longer to throw the ball, took a little off of it and threw it on target to Steer at first, ending the game.Arroyo drove in the team’s first run of the game and has been settling into his spot in the big leagues, with hits in four of his last six games after managing just two hits in his first five games.Tony SantillanReliever Tony Santillan was arguably the Reds’ top pitcher a year ago, appearing in 80 games out of the bullpen, just one fewer than the major-league leader. In his dominant 2025, Santillan had a 2.44 ERA, and his 2.1 bWAR was tops among Reds relievers.This year hasn’t been as smooth for the 6-foot-3, 285-pound reliever who teammates call “Oso,” Spanish for “bear.” Since Reds closer Emilio Pagán went on the injured list last month, entering Saturday, Santillan had appeared in 15 games and had a 10.32 ERA, blown three saves, converted one and allowed as many home runs (7) in that stretch as he did in all of 2025 in 65 more appearances.So when the Reds entered the ninth with a one-run lead, facing the heart of the Diamondbacks order — right fielder Corbin Carroll (who homered in the first), Moreno (who was 2-for-3 entering the ninth) and future Hall of Famer Arenado — the confidence in Santillan outside of the Reds dugout wasn’t high.Just 14 pitches later, Stephenson was shaking Santillan’s hand, congratulating him on his third save of the season and first since May 19.Stephenson and Santillan have played together since they were the Reds’ first- and second-round picks, respectively, out of high school in the 2015 draft. Few pitchers and catchers know each other as well as those two, and for Stephenson, it was a relief to see the best version of Santillan on the mound, attacking hitters and getting outs.“It’s a sigh of relief, and everybody feels that,” Stephenson said. “It’s something to build off of it, and that’s all you ask for is momentum.”Over the last month or so that he’s struggled, Santillan has been at his locker after every game, ready to face the repetitive questions. For someone who doesn’t show much emotion, he noted he was ready to sneak out of the clubhouse when he saw a horde of reporters go to Chase Petty’s locker to talk to him about his first career win, just as he was finishing getting dressed. For Santillan and most relievers, media responsibilities are seen as a requirement of the job when you’re not meeting expectations, not for when you are simply doing what’s expected. It’s that type of attitude that’s needed to survive.“It’s no secret that I’ve been letting the team down a lot of different ways, not doing my job,” Santillan said. “I beat myself up about it. … It’s just who I am, what makes me really good. I expect perfection out of myself, so that (support) kind of keeps me going and keep working, and I always believe.”That attitude — and Santillan’s aptitude — is why the team sticks with him and believes in him and has stuck by him.“It’s very meaningful because it’s not been the easiest road for him for a little while,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “He’s fought through it so much, and he means so much to what we do. It meant a lot to see him out there getting that. That was big for everybody.”