The people responsible for the home run celebration fireworks at Great American Ball Park barely had time to reload in the fourth inning on Monday. Three homers in the bottom of the fourth helped power the Reds to an 8-2 victory over the Braves. It was Cincinnati’s third win in four games since the All-Star break, while Atlanta has dropped three of its last four.
Atlanta took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth, before Cincinnati pounced with five runs in the bottom half. Zack Cozart hit a solo homer against Braves starter Matt Wisler, before Joey Votto and Eugenio Suarez each added two-run shots. Cincinnati had been without a home run in each of its previous four games.
“The ball started to get up in the fourth inning,” Wisler said. “I came out the first couple innings, kept the ball down, even if I was missing in the middle they were usually down, they weren’t doing too much with it, but once they ball got up, they started teeing off on me.”
Brandon Finnegan started for the Reds and worked five-plus innings, allowing two earned runs, seven hits, one walk and striking out five in his first start since July 5. Finnegan faced three batters in the sixth but couldn’t record an out. It included Adonis Garcia’s leadoff homer, Freddie Freeman’s ground-rule double and Nick Markakis’ single that ended the lefty’s night. Blake Wood took over and retired the side in order to squash the rally.
“I just wanted to go out there and get ahead,” said Finnegan, who gave up four homers vs. the Cubs in his previous start. “As a pitcher when you get ahead, you can do a lot. It helps you out a lot more. You saw tonight that once I got behind, it kind of hurt me a little bit. Today was definitely a step forward.”
Wisler gave up six runs (five earned) and eight hits over five-plus innings with two walks and three strikeouts. In the Reds’ sixth, reliever Joel De La Cruz allowed an inherited run to cross on Tucker Barnhart’s RBI single. In the seventh with Eric O’Flaherty on the mound, Votto added an RBI single that scored Billy Hamilton, and the Reds’ first baseman later scored on pinch-hitter Ivan De Jesus Jr.’s bloop RBI single.
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