Brandon Drury launched his 20th homer of the season with a two-out, tiebreaking drive in the eighth to lead the Cincinnati Reds past the visiting Baltimore Orioles, 3-2, in the rubber game of the weekend interleague series.
The Orioles had just tied the game in the top of the inning on a tape measure drive by Anthony Santander off reliever Alexis Diaz (3-1) before Drury victimized Felix Bautista (3-3).
Buck Farmer pitched a scoreless ninth for his first major league save in six chances, in his first opportunity with the Reds. Farmer and the Reds were aided by a crew chief review that overturned a safe call on Rougned Odor’s bunt attempt to open the ninth.
The Reds had already used their traditional review unsuccessfully to challenge Tommy Pham being thrown out in the eighth trying to steal second.
The Reds finished 6-4 on their 10-game homestand and won 12 of their 21 home games in the month. Baltimore lost consecutive games for just the second time in July.
Cincinnati rookie starter Nick Lodolo worked out of a pair of two-on jams over the first six innings.
In the fourth, Santander singled and Austin Hays walked with one out. Lodolo recovered by getting Ramon Urias to pop out to second and Ryan Mountcastle to fly out to right. Lodolo then struck Urias out with two on and two away in the sixth.
In his last two starts, Lodolo, one of Cincinnati’s three heralded rookie starters, has recorded his first two career quality starts, striking out 16 and allowing just one earned run over 12 innings. On Sunday, Lodolo yielded just four hits, walked two and struck out seven.
Against Baltimore starter Austin Voth, the Reds didn’t get a runner into scoring position over five innings. In the sixth, Jonathan India and Donovan Solano opened with walks against reliever Bryan Baker. After Pham’s flyout moved India to third, Votto singled against the shift into left-center off reliever Cionel Perez to put the Reds ahead, 1-0.
After Perez walked pinch-hitter Drury, Kyle Farmer lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Solano for a 2-0 lead.
Lodolo opened the seventh by walking Mountcastle before being lifted for reliever Joel Kuhnel. Odor hit a pinch-hit single before Jorge Mateo flew out to right to advance Mountcastle to third. Mountcastle scored on a Cedric Mullins sacrifice fly to left. Diaz entered for Cincinnati and struck out Trey Mancini to end the threat.
But Santander crushed his 19th homer halfway up the sun deck in right field to tie the game in the eighth.
–Field Level Media