The Reds’ offense came alive at the right times on Tuesday night, scoring off Rockies starter Kyle Freeland early and often in a convincing 8-1 win.
In an impressive display of clutch hitting, the Reds scored four runs with two outs and two-strike counts in the first three innings. Adam Duvall opened the scoring with an RBI double in the first, Billy Hamilton plated two with a single in the second and Jose Peraza stroked a run-scoring single in the third. The Reds added a pair of two-out, two-strike runs in the eighth, when Scooter Gennett hit a pinch-hit home run.
“Just throughout the lineup, I thought [we had] some really good at-bats against a guy with a good sinker who keeps the ball on the ground, mostly,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “We saw a lot of their best bullpen pieces. I tip my hat to our position players for putting runs on the board and giving us some breathing room.”
The Rockies, meanwhile, couldn’t get much going against right-hander Homer Bailey, who won his first MLB game since Aug. 12 of last year, vs. the Brewers. Colorado was held without an extra-base hit at home for just the fourth time this season and first since May 27, vs. the Cardinals.
Rockies shortstop Trevor Story acknowledged his team’s recent offensive struggles, but he doesn’t think the team is pressing. Story, who went 0-for-4 on Tuesday with two strikeouts and is 7-for-his-last-45, said the team’s struggle for extra-base hits is just part of the ebbs and flows of a long season.
“It’s tough, because we know we can play better than we are,” Story said. “It [stinks] when you go through it, but we believe in ourselves that we’ll come out of it. … We’re just trying to hit the ball hard, that’s it.”
Mark Reynolds continued to make his case for the 2017 MLB All-Star Game Esurance Final Vote in the seventh inning, when he reached over the dugout to make a catch to rob Duvall. Reynolds sits in fourth place behind the Dodgers’ Justin Turner, the Cubs’ Kris Bryant and the Nationals’ Anthony Rendon.
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