The Athletics and Reds combined to hit six home runs at Hohokam Stadium on Sunday afternoon, but it was the Cincinnati pitchers who gave up four of them and only one of them happened to be a solo home run. That made the end result a lopsided one as the Athletics picked up their second win of the spring with a 12-4 victory.
The Highlights
It didn’t take too long for the Athletics to grab a lead in this one. Shea Langeliers followed a walk from Nick Kurtz with a 369-foot home run in the 1st inning. Andrew Abbott then retired the next six batters, but he gave up a 1-out single in the bottom of the 3rd inning and then a 2-out RBI double to Langeliers as the Athletics built a 3-0 lead. That ended the day for Abbott, but reliever Hunter Parks came on and walked Max Muncy then gave up a 3-run homer to Austin Wynns to make it a 6-0 deficit for the Reds.
Another run would come across the plate for the Athletics in the bottom of the 4th inning after Emilio Pagan gave up back-to-back singles into right field to begin the inning and saw Henry Bolte score on a play at the plate on a fielders choice.
Cincinnati would get on the board in the top of the 6th inning with a little bit of help from Athletics pitching. Walks earlier in the inning put Will Benson and JJ Bleday on the bases when Nathaniel Lowe unloaded on a 460-foot 3-run home run that came off the bat at 111.2 MPH. That cut the deficit to 7-3. The next inning another long home run cut further into the lead as Dane Myers his a 419-foot blast to left field to lead off the 7th.
Things went south for the Reds pitchers in the 8th inning. Luis Mey came on to begin the inning and he walked two batters and gave up two hits while the last hit was a grand slam. He would only record one out before exiting the game with Zach Maxwell taking over and after he got the second out of the inning he gave up a home run of his own that pushed the score to 12-4. The Reds would go down in order in the top of the 9th as they fell to 4-4 on the spring.
You can see the box score for this game here.
News and Notes
The Reds managed just five hits on the day, though they did walk five times and had six strikeouts. Cincinnati pitchers combined to give up 11 hits, hit a batter, and walked five.
Tony Santillan, Brock Burke, and Connor Phillips all tossed a shutout inning on the afternoon.
Dane Myers continued to get the job done at the plate this spring. He’s now 5-11 (.455) with two doubles, a home run, three walks, and he’s yet to strikeout.
Rece Hinds picked up a double in his only at-bat of the day and is now hitting .500/.600/.875 in his 10 plate appearances this spring.
The Reds are back at home on Monday to take on the Chicago Cubs and you will be able to watch it on Reds.tv/MLB.tv. Expected to pitch for Cincinnati in the game: Brady Singer, Brandon Williamson, Sam Moll, Yunior Marte, and Sam Benschoter.