CINCINNATI (AP) — The Reds took out a lot of frustration in one inning to snap a losing streak.
Brandon Phillips drove in four runs with a home run and a triple during Cincinnati’s 10-run sixth inning and the Reds came back from a five-run deficit to snap a nine-game losing streak with a 12-5 win over the Detroit Tigers on Monday night.
In the makeup of a game postponed on June 18 by rain, former Detroit shortstop Eugenio Suarez homered and doubled during Cincinnati’s biggest inning since scoring 10 runs against Arizona in August 2005. Fourteen Reds batted in the inning against four Detroit pitchers, including reliever Al Alburquerque (3-1), who allowed three runs while not retiring any of the three batters he faced.
“Suarez sparked us,” Reds’ manager Bryan Price said of the shortstop that got a chance at the big leagues due to an injury to Zach Cozart. “He’s had a lot of run production in 200 at bats. I didn’t anticipate that. With two strikes he gives a quality at bat.”
Skip Schumaker gave the Reds a 6-5 lead with a two-run single as Tigers were setting a season-high for runs allowed in an inning on the way to their fourth straight loss .
“It was an important hit for our team. We needed some smiles around here,” Schumaker said. “It was big for me. I didn’t want to make two outs in the inning.”
Collin Balester (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings to set the stage for Cincinnati’s biggest comeback of the season and earn his first major league win since 2012, when he was with Detroit. The Reds previous biggest comeback had been from a three-run deficit in an 8-5 win over Washington on May 30.
Joey Votto added his 24th homer, a two-run shot, in the eighth.
Relievers Burke Badenhop, J.J. Hoover and Aroldis Chapman finished the game.
Detroit sent nine batters to the plate in a four-run first that featured J.D. Martinez’s 33rd home run — a two-run shot — and Nick Castellanos’ 14th, a solo blast. Ian Kinsler scored the first run from first base on Miguel Cabrera’s single to deep right.
Cabrera added an RBI double in the fourth.
Buck Farmer pitched 5 1-3 scoreless innings before allowing Suarez’s ninth homer and Phillips’ two-run shot, his 10th. He allowed three hits and three runs with three walks and three strikeouts.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Reds’ LHP Tony Cingrani lasted just three innings for Triple-A Louisville on Sunday in his second start since coming off the seven-day disabled list with a right (non-throwing) shoulder strain. “I’m just going by the report, but it sounds like he had a little bit of a temperamental arm issue,” manager Bryan Price said before Monday’s Reds’ game.
