McCoy: Braves Obliterate Reds, 15-3, With Six-Homer Barrage

By Hal McCoy

When the Cincinnati Reds swept the Atlanta Braves earlier this season in Atlanta, the Braves had one extra-base hit in the three games.

And the Reds outscored the Braves, 16-5.

The Braves rectified that with a vengeance this week in Great American Ball Park.

With a 15-3 six-homer tub-thumping of the Reds Thursday afternoon, the Braves won two of three games and put on a power display that would make General Electric proud.

For the three games, the Braves bashed 16 extra-base hits, 10 for home runs. And they outscored the Reds 27-10.

On Thursday, Matt Olson and Michael Harris II each hit two homers. Olson hit three in the series and Harris hit four.

The assignment Thursday was difficult to begin with. The Reds faced Chris Sale, odds-on to win the National League Cy Young.

Facing Sale is a no sale for whomever he faces. He is now 18-3 and he is 8-0 over his last 14 starts. In his last eight games he has given up eight runs.

So when the Braves jumped on Reds rookie starter Julian Aguiar for a 4-0 lead in the top of the third, the outcome was a foregonner.

When Aguiar took the mound, Reds starters had gone 13 straight starts without giving up more than three earned runs.

But in Aguiar’s four-plus innings, he gave up seven runs, six hits, two walks, two hit batsmen and two home runs.

With a mammoth lead, Sale was lifted after five innings after giving up two runs and five hits while striking out six. His league-leading earned run average inched up from 2.35 to 2.38.

After a 1-2-3 first inning, Aguiar appeared to have Matt Olson struck out on a pitch inside the TV box. But umpire Derek Thomas called it ball two instead of strike three. The next pitch landed in the right field seats.

With two on and two outs in the third, Ramon Laureano launched a three-run homer to give Sale a 4-0 lead.

The Reds had a chance to get back in it in the bottom of the fourth.

Reds rookie Blake Dunn, making a rare start in center field, apparently never heard of Chris Sale and what he represents.

Dunn poked a single to right, then stole second and third. He scored on Jonaathan India’s single. The Reds then filled the bases with one out, but Ty France rolled into an inning-ending double play.

That was it.

It all got away from the Reds in a strange fifth inning. Aguiar hit Michael Harris II with a pitch. And he hit Jorge Soler with the next pitch. And his next pitch was a run-scoring double by Marcell Ozuna.

Strangely, manager David Bell chose to use two pitchers just recalled from Triple-A Louisville — Yosver Zulueta and Brandon Leibrandt over the final five innings — and it was disaster.

The pair gave up eight runs, 12 hits and four home runs.

Zulueta replaced Aguiar and he did exactly what Reds relief pitchers Tony Santillan and Justin Wilson did during Wednesday’s 7-1 loss.

They gave up home runs to the first batter they faced. So did Zulueta, a three-run rip by Matt Olson, his second of the game and third of the series. And it was 8-1.

Leibrandt replaced Zulueta in the sixth and it took four batters before he gave up a home run. But he put two men on base before Jorge Soler crushed a three-run home run to make it 11-2.

Leibrandt gave up another home run in the eighth, this one by Ozuna, Atlanta’s fifth homer of the game.

Just to put an exclamation point on the proceedings, Harris crushed a three-run homer off Leibrandt in the ninth, Atlanta’s sixth homer and third off Leibrandt.

There was one bright light on the Cincinnati side.

After Dunn singled and stole two bases, on his next at bat against Sale he hit a home run that would have made Adam Dunn proud, a 433-footer that banged against the black batter’s eye in straightawy center.

And he walked and scored in the seventh, scoring all three Reds runs.
Most of the Braves fattened up their offensive statistics. The first five in the order combined for 10 hits, 12 runs, 15 RBI and six homers.

Harris had three hits, scored four times and drove in four. Soler had two hits, scored two and drove in three. Ozuna had the three-run homer, Olson had two hits, scored three and drove in four. Laureano had two hit, scored one and drove in three.

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