Brandon Phillips hit a three-run home run. Joey Votto hit his eighth and Todd Frazier one-handed his fifth in a barrage that carried the team to a 7-5 win to take the series 2-1. The Reds won five of the six games on the home stand and sit 1 1/2 games above the second place St. Louis Cardinals.
Mat Latos pitched 7 1/3 innings of five hit baseball but all five were solo home runs. As long-time Reds broadcaster Joe Nuxhall once said, "Most of the time when a team hits a solo home run, they only score one run."
The key was that Latos didn't walk anyone in posting his fourth straight win.
"I didn't walk anybody?" Latos said. "That makes me feel a little better as a pitcher its a bummer to let a team go yard five times. I was in attack mode. I was just throwing strikes. It's always good when you throw strikes but I don't make excuses. If I get those pitches down, they don't leave the ballpark. Maybe they're ground outs."
Colorado manager Jim Tracy blamed the weather as he praised his team for fighting back after falling behind 7-2 after four innings.
"In 90 plus heat the ball really flies out especially in this ballpark," Tracy said. "Evidence of that is the home run Frazier hit. It looked like he had a hand and a half on the bat but he hit it out. But it went over the fence, there's nothing you can do about it. It's that simple."
Moyer admitted he missed his spot a couple of times.
"On Bruce I did. The pitch to Phillips was up a little bit. I don't think the pitch to Votto was a strike. Frazier's was an interesting swing."
"I felt the bat slipping out of my hands," Frazier said. "I looked at it in slow motion and it looks like my bottom hand is off the bat. At first I thought it was a pop out to shortstop, then I took a couple of steps and said 'oh, that's a pretty interesting way to hit a home run.'"
The teams combined for nine home runs a record for 10-year old Great American Ball Park. The Reds and its opponents combined for 29 home runs - a high for home stands of seven games or fewer.
For Bruce it was his first home run since May 8 at Milwaukee. Phillips hit three home runs on the homestand. Votto has hit seven home runs in his last 27 games. Zack Cozart extended his hitting streak to seven games with a fourth inning double that scored Ryan Hanigan with the only run that did not score via the home run.
Mat Latos is the first pitcher in Reds history and the 11th in MLB history to be the winning pitcher while giving up five home runs. Bronson Arroyo was the last Reds pitcher to allow five runs and win. He did that last June at Baltimore.
Aroldis Chapman earned his third save. He entered with runners on first and third in the eighth. Chapman struck out Carlos Gonzalez, who had his seventh career multi-home run game and the third of the season.
Chapman walked Jason Giambi to open the ninth but got Michael Cuddyer, who launched a 448 foot blast off the batter's eye in center field, to line to Phillips. He then ended Jordan Pacheco's 11 game hitting streak by inducing a 6-4-3 double play.
The "Cuban Missle" has pitched 26 innings without allowing an earned run. He has 44 strikeouts.
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| Edited by ML Schirmer For professional proof reading call 513-240-3120 |
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