Three batters into Thursday’s game at Great American Ball Park, the D-backs set the tone. After the first two batters reached, Jake Lamb slugged a three-run home run that sent Arizona on its way to a 12-2 victory over the Reds. That claimed two of three games in the series.
Before Lamb batted, Daniel Descalso walked and Chris Iannetta hit a double against Reds rookie Luis Castillo. Castillo went on to retire 18 of his next 20 batters. Lamb added a second homer, a three-run shot to left field, in the ninth inning against Ariel Hernandez during a six-run rally to finish with a career-high six RBIs.
“I am so proud of these guys, fighting through some really difficult circumstances over the past several games — a very capable Cincinnati Reds team, at 1 in the morning our starter has to go home for the birth of his child,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “We found a way to get it done … These guys really did a nice job rallying around one another.”
Summoned for a spot start after Taijuan Walker left on paternity leave, Patrick Corbin provided 7 1/3 superb innings of work with one earned run, seven hits, one walk and six strikeouts.
Corbin did not allow a run until Eugenio Suarez led off the Cincinnati fourth inning with a home run to left field that cut his lead to 3-1. Arizona got the run back in the fifth when Gregor Blanco hit a triple against Castillo and scored on Descalso’s sacrifice fly.
Castillo pitched six innings with four earned runs, four hits, one walk and seven strikeouts. Reds reliever Tony Cingrani allowed Blanco’s two-run homer in the seventh inning. The first batter after Corbin departed, Suarez, greeted reliever and former Red J.J. Hoover with a solo homer to right field. That gave Suarez 15 homers this season and the third multi-homer game of his career.
Hernandez’s rough ride in the ninth marked the fourth time in the last seven games the Reds’ pitching staff has yielded double-digit run totals. During the 1-6 homestand that has three games remaining, Reds pitchers have allowed 20 homers.
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