You needed to see home runs? Yeah, the Reds had some home runs on Friday night. Plenty of them, bunches of them. In fact, they had all kinds of home runs for your perusal.
Missed one? Don’t worry, it felt like another long ball would be along soon enough.
Against the Nationals during a 15-0 rout, Cincinnati had solo shots, two-run blasts, three-run dingers and even a pinch-hit grand slam. There were two players — Todd Frazier and Zack Cozart — who enjoyed multi-homer games. All total, six of their 19 hits in the game came via home runs.
“It was exciting, team-wise,” said Frazier, who was 4-for-5 with three runs scored and four RBIs. “Cozart was doing his thing and everybody was contributing. It was pretty cool. You wish you could have those games every day. We can live in this moment for a little longer and then we’ve got another game tomorrow.”
Pitcher Dan Haren’s Nationals debut did not go well as he was pounded for six runs and nine hits, including the game’s first four home runs, over only four innings. Frazier got it started in the second inning when he crushed a one-out pitch 437 feet to the left-field upper bleachers for a solo homer.
On the very next pitch, a fastball, Cozart began his career-best five-RBI night when he went deep to the first row of seats in left field for his first homer that snapped an 0-for-11 skid to begin the season.
“For me personally, you don’t want to think about it — starting 0-for-11 — because it’s such a long season. But you’re going to think about it,” Cozart said. “I was just going up there trying to get a hit and ran into one. I can’t hit them as far as [Frazier] obviously, so I just try to get them over the wall.”
Cozart returned with two outs in the third inning and hit an 0-1 pitch to left field for a three-run homer and the first multi-homer game of his career. In the fourth inning with one out, Shin-Soo Choo hit a 2-1 Haren pitch into the first row in right-center field for his second homer in two days. The solo homer was reviewed on video replay by umpires for three minutes and 39 seconds before the call was upheld.
In the fifth inning against reliever Zach Duke, Cozart’s sacrifice fly to right field scored Frazier for the fifth RBI, making it a 7-0 game. The run support was an embarrassment of riches for Reds starter Homer Bailey.
“Sometimes it might make you relax a little too much,” Bailey said.
Bailey allowed two singles, three walks and struck out six. However, he didn’t feel like it was his best night.
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