Cincinnati Reds give up four home runs in loss to Athletics – Redleg Nation

The Athletics and Reds combined to hit six home runs at Hohokam Stadium on Sunday afternoon, but it was Cincinnati’s pitchers who gave up four and only one of those happened to be a solo home run. That lopsided the final result as the Athletics picked up their second win of the spring with a 12-4 victory.

The highlights

It didn’t take long for the Athletics to take the lead. Shea Langeliers followed Nick Kurtz’s walk with a 300-foot home run in the first inning. Andrew Abbott then retired the next six batters, but he gave up a 1-out single in the bottom of the third 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 cross the plate for the Athletics in the bottom of the 4th inning after Emilio Pagan gave up back-to-back singles to right field to start the inning and saw Henry Bolte score on a play at the plate on a fielder’s choice.

Cincinnati would get on the board in the top of the 6th inning with a little help from Athletics pitching. A walk earlier in the inning put Will Benson and JJ Bleday on base when Nathaniel Lowe released on a 460-foot 3-run home run that came off the bat at 111.2 MPH. That brought the deficit back to 7-3. The next inning, another long home run cut the lead further as Dane Myers blasted a 400-foot blast to left field to lead off the 7th.

Things went wrong for the Reds pitchers in the 8th inning. Luis Mey came on to start the inning and he walked two and gave up two singles, with the final hit being a grand slam. He would record just one out before leaving the game with Zach Maxwell taking over and after getting the second out of the inning, he gave up a home run of his own that pushed the lead to 12-4. The Reds would fall in order in the top of the ninth, as they fell to 4-4 in the spring.

You can view the box score for this game here.

News and notes

The Reds managed just five hits on the day, though they walked five and struck out six. Cincinnati’s pitchers combined to give up 11 hits, hit a batter and walked five.

Tony Santillan, Brock Burke and Connor Phillips all pitched shutout innings that afternoon.

Dane Myers continued to get the job done at the plate this spring. He is now 5-11 (.455) with two doubles, a home run, three walks, and has 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 at-bats this spring.

The Reds are back home on Monday to take on the Chicago Cubs and you can watch it at Reds.tv/MLB.tv. Expected to pitch in for Cincinnati are: Brady Singer, Brandon Williamson, Sam Moll, Yunior Marte and Sam Benschoter.