Tyler Stephenson and Elly De La Cruz made the place look like Williamsport with three massive home runs that ignited the Reds to a 7-2 win over the Kansas City Royals.
Stephenson struck first, a 417-foot eruption to dead center.
The next two, both crushed by De La Cruz, got longer and longer, both also to dead center. His first covered 436 feet and the next one traveled 451 feet.
It splashed down in the fountain pond beyond the wall and if the Loch Ness Monster had been in it, it would have evacuated.
The beneficiary was Reds pitcher Brady Singer, returning to the place he pitched for five years before he was traded in the offseason to the Reds.
He pitched seven innings and held the Royals to two runs and seven hits.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The talk of the town, though, were the three down-range home runs and the Reds’ offense, which has now scored six or more runs in five straight games.
They’ve scored 7,7,8,6 and 6.
The first three in the Reds batting order, TJ Friedl, Santiago Espinal and De La Cruz had seven of the team’s 10 hits and scored six of the seven runs.
Friedl had three hits, his sixth multi-hits game of his last seven.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Stephenson’s homer, his second in two nights, led the second and gave the Reds a 1-0 lead.
Kansas City scored its only runs in the second with three straight two-out singles, including a run-scoring single by Jonathan India to give the Royals a 2-1 lead.
India was traded by the Reds to Kansas City for Singer and they were teammates at the University of Florida.
Then De La Cruz led the fourth with his first homer of the night to tie it, 2-2, then broke the tie with his ball-drenching drive in the fourth.
It was De La Cruz’s fifth multi-homer game of his career, tying him with Pete Rose for the team’s most by a switch-hitter.
“When Steve-o (Stephenson) hit his homer to center, that was big boy territory,” said Reds manager Tito Francona. “Then Elly comes up and hits one farther, then the next one.
“That one kinda reminded me of one he hit in Cleveland that I thought was going to go into Lake Erie,” he added, speaking of when he manager the Cleveland Guardians. “That was impressive.”
Said catcher Jose Trevino, who has played many games in Kauffman Stadium, “Impressive, man, impressive. I haven’t seen too many balls hit up there to where he hit those.
“Yeah, he made the park look small and so did my boy Steve-o,” Trevino added. “I think I saw Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge (all New York Yankees) hit ‘em up there, but that’s it. This is a big, big park.”
The Reds put the game away in the eighth with three runs and added another in the ninth.
So the Reds have clinched the series with wins in the first two games with Hunter Greene ready to pitch game three Wednesday night.
“That’s a really good team, a really good team,” said Trevino about the Royals. “They are going off the momentum they had last year, a playoff team. They get hot and get rolling that’s a really good team.”
Singer, wanting to make an impression on his old fans and former teammates, was a bit wobbly the first two innings, but retired 14 of the last 16.
And the last batter he retired was ever-dangerous Bobby Witt Jr. The score was still 3-2 in the seventh and the Royals had a runner on first with two outs. Singer retired him on a deep fly ball to left.
“Bobby Witt... he makes you nervous, especially in a situation like that,” said Francona. “Singer made some really good pitches when he had to and took the sting out of some of ‘em and gave us seven innings, which we really needed.
“I asked D.J (pitching coach Derek Johnson) in the bullpen how he looked warming up and he said he was real sharp and under control,” said Francona. “So that was a good feeling going in.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Said Singer, who started 67 games in Kauffman for the Royals, “It was really cool coming back here after spending so much time here (five years). It was really fun because they have a real good lineup over there. I loved competing with them.
“Facing India was a little weird, first time after the trade, and obviously the whole night because I know those guys really well.”
The series had a subplot — a matchup between two young superstar shortstops in Witt and De La Cruz.
After two games, De La Cruz is far ahead on points, while Witt is 0 for 7 with a walk and a strikeout, De La Cruz is 3 for 7 with two homers, two RBI, three runs scored, two walks and two strikeouts.
NEXT GAME
Who: Reds at Royals
When: Wednesday, May 28, 7:40 p.m.
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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