Edwin Encarnacion came home to haunt the Reds. He hit his 22nd and 23rd home runs of the season and drove in six runs to exact revenge on the team that traded him in a 14-9 win.
"It was a great feeling," Encarnacion said. "I played here five years. To do that here feels great."
The Reds scored eight runs in the second inning, its highest scoring inning of the season but had to hang on as the normally reliable pitching allowed the powerful Toronto Blue Jays to power their way back into the game.
Jay Bruce singled and homered in the inning, driving in two and scoring two, Bruce started the inning off Liam Hendricks, who was recalled from Triple A Buffalo before the game, with a single. Mesoroco hit his 11th home run of the season and second in two days to put the Reds up quickly 2-0.
Skip Schumacher and Zack Cozart singled to put runners at the corners with no outs.
Reds' starting pitcher, Mat Latos, hit a ground ball to short with Cozart running to score Schumacher.
Cozart went to third on a passed ball. Toronto manager John Gibbons brought the infield in cut off the run at the plate with Billy Hamilton up. The move backfired. Hamilton hit a bloop to rightcenter that secondbaseman, Muneneori Kawasaki, couldn't get to it. Hamilton of course sped into second with a double. He stole third on the first pitch to Todd Frazier.
Frazier couldn't get him home with a fly to shallow right. Joey Votto walked. Brandon Phillips singled with Hamilton and Votto scoring and Phillips taking second on the throw home. Bruce capped the scoring with his sixth home run of the season a two-run shot to rightcenter off former Red, Todd Redmond.
Latos worked around two hits in the second. He got the first two batters in the third but Melky Cabrera doubled. Jose Batista walked. That brought former Red and current Major League home run leader, Edwin Encarnacion to the plate. Encarnacion lined his 22nd home run into the leftfield seats.
Bruce walked then stole second. When Mesoraco grounded to Brett Lawrie at third. Lawrie charged the ball and threw Mesoraco out. Bruce took off for third. Encarnacion's return throw got away from Lawrie and allowed Bruce to score to make it 9-1 Reds after five.
The game changed in the sixth.
Latos struck out Lawrie to begin the inning. Colby Rasmus doubled. Kawasaki singled to put runners at first and third. Pinch hitter Adam Lind singled to score Rasmus. Jose Reyes topped a ball to Latos. Manny Parra relieved Latos and walked Melky Cabrera. Logan Ondrusek came on and walked Jose Bautista to force Kawasaki home to make it 9-5.
"I couldn't find my release point with the breaking ball. I let my emotions get the better of me," Latos said of his second start of the season. "Then I couldn't get the release point on my fastball either. I am extremely pissed off at myself. I hate burning the bullpen. I'm sure everyone is pissed off tonight."
The bullpen was used more that it normally is after the Reds played 12 innings in Pittsburgh yesterday. They used Aroldis Chapman and others more innings than normal. They sent the losing pitcher from Thursday to Louisville to get straightened out but also because he threw a lot of pitches in that loss and wouldn't have been available.
"We were in a challenging spot coming into the day," Bryan Price said. "That's why I stayed with Mat a little longer. He wasn't sharp. I felt like he had done enough. He may have gotten Cabrera out but we'll never know. When you make a decision like that you hope they execute. They didn't and we're sucking on a loss. We have a talented group of pitchers. The one in Pittsburgh stunk yesterday. This one was just ugly."
Jumbo Diaz made his major league debut. He retired the first batter he faced. Lawrie hit his 12th home run but Diaz got Rasmus to ground out. Kawasaki reached base for the third time with his second single. Gibbons sent Juan Francisco, a former Red, to pinch hit. Francisco was released by the Milwaukee Brewers this spring. Francisco brought the Blue Jays within a run with an opposite field home run to left.
Jonathan Broxton started the eighth. Broxton had a streak of 14 appearances without allowing a run. He had an 0.40 ERA. Broxton walked Cabrera but Bautista hit into a double play. Then Broxton walked Encarnacion. Yet another former Red, Dioner Navarro tied the game with a double.
Even Chapman had an off night. Chapman walked two, giving the Reds' staff 10 walks to go with Toronto's 16 hits. Erik Kratz doubled to put the Blue Jays ahead for the first time. Encarnacion hit his second three-run homer of the game off Sam LeCure to finish off the Reds.
"You think of all the things we did wrong, they (Toronto) did a lot of things right," Price said. "They laid off some pitches to put together good at bats. We didn't add on after the fifth either. We scored one run over the last seven innings."
The comeback by the Blue Jays was the second biggest in franchise history. They beat the Boston Red Sox on June 4, 1989 after trailing 10-0 and won 13-11. The last time the Reds lost a lead of eight runs or more was on May 20, 2010 when Atlanta scored nine runs in the ninth to defeat the Reds 10-9.
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