Todd Frazier powered the Reds through their scoring struggles with a pair of home runs, including a go-ahead drive to center field in the seventh inning, as Cincinnati gained a split in the two-game Interleague set against the Tigers with a 5-2 win Tuesday night at Comerica Park.
One night after Anibal Sanchez allowed just four balls out of the infield in a shutout, the Reds hit almost that many balls out of the park off lefty Kyle Ryan (1-1). Frazier and Jay Bruce hit back-to-back homers in the fifth inning after Ryan faced the minimum 12 batters through four. Ryan settled down from there, but paid dearly for his first pitch of the seventh inning to Frazier, who sent it toward the flagpole in the depths of left-center field.
“He’s having an even bigger year than the statistics would suggest for our ballclub,” Reds manager Bryan Price said of Frazier.
The rally made a winner of Michael Lorenzen (2-2), who had a hard-luck unearned run on a Yoenis Cespedes ricochet ball in the fifth inning, but otherwise contained the damage for six innings.
“I thought the way he went about his business today, he just showed that he was willing to go out there and attack,” Price said about Lorenzen. “We played some nice defense behind him, and he made the pitches he needed to make.”
The Reds got a Billy Hamilton RBI single in the seventh, and a run on a throwing error by Detroit shortstop Jose Iglesias in the ninth.
J.J. Hoover and Aroldis Chapman shut down Detroit in the eighth and ninth, respectively, to secure the win.
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