Adam Duvall hit his 20th home run and drove in another in the Reds’ 6-3 defeat of the Rockies on Thursday, joining fellow sluggers Joey Votto and Scott Schebler at the 20-homer threshold. The trio is on pace to hit a combined 123 home runs this season, surpassing the previous club record set in 1970 of 119.
The Reds, who’ve now won four of their last 19 road games, had 13 hits overall Thursday as they earned the four-game series split at Coors Field, their most since June 20 vs. the Rays. The Votto-Duvall-Schebler trio reached base eight times in 15 plate appearances.
“I feel like collectively as a whole group and team, we’ve been swinging it well,” Duvall said. “We’re approaching the half, and we’ve just got to keep winning ballgames.”
In the eighth, the Rockies nearly mounted a comeback against closer Raisel Iglesias, who has been lights-out for most of the year. After Raimel Tapia scored on a sacrifice fly, Charlie Blackmon — hitting third for just the second time in his career — reached third with two outs thanks to a throwing error on his stolen-base attempt. But Carlos Gonzalez struck out swinging to leave him stranded.
Gonzalez is mired in a season-long slump, hitting just .217/.297/.337 in 72 games. His .634 OPS would match his career-worst mark set during his rookie season in 2008 with the Athletics.
“A lot of times when I get in trouble I start swinging at their pitches instead of my pitches,” Gonzalez said. “But it’s a fight. They’re not gonna throw me anything over there. It doesn’t matter what the batting average is.”
The Rockies’ offense continued scuffling along with Gonzalez on Thursday, and has averaged 3.3 runs per game since Nolan Arenado’s walk-off home run to complete the cycle on June 18. Manager Bud Black said the team hasn’t put together a whole game recently, which may account for the struggles.
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