The Cincinnati Reds hit three home runs on the night, with Eugenio Suarez hitting two of them in the first two innings to help build a big lead. From there the pitching staff behind a solid start from Chase Burns kept the New York Mets off the board in a blowout win to open up the series at Great American Ball Park.
The Cincinnati Reds offense went to work early on. Blake Dunn doubled to start the bottom of the 1st inning. Sal Stewart would walk later in the inning and then he and Dunn executed a double steal. A groundout brought in the first run of the game and then Eugenio Suarez hit a 2-run home run into the second row of seats in left field to make it 3-0.
The next inning was even bigger for Cincinnati. They would load the bases with no outs. JJ Bleday got the scoring started this time around when he drew a 1-out walk. That resulted in a pitching change but that didn’t change much for the Mets as Sal Stewart greeted Jonathan Pintaro with an RBI single that made it 5-0. With two outs Eugenio Suarez did more damage as he crushed a grand slam just over the fence in left-center and onto the top of the Reds bullpen as the home team extended their lead to 9-0.
Chase Burns was cruising through the first three innings, but he ran into trouble in the 4th after a leadoff double was followed up by a walk. He would get a pop up to follow, but then walked another batter to load the bases. Burns came through with a 9-pitch at-bat that ended with a pop up for the second out of the frame. He would then get a strikeout on pitch number 32 of the inning to strand the bases loaded.
The next inning was more of the same. Burns walked the leadoff batter and then gave up two singles as New York loaded the bases with one out. He then got Juan Soto to pop up for the second out. Two pitches later he got a fly out to right center to end the inning.
With Chase Burns having thrown 100 pitches on the day, Cincinnati went to the bullpen and brought in Brock Burke to begin the 6th inning. He didn’t make it easy as he issued a 1-out walk and gave up a 2-out single, but he got through the inning while keeping the shutout going.
Caleb Ferguson took over for Cincinnati in the top of the 7th inning and he struggled, giving up a leadoff single before striking out Bo Bichette. But he then walked the next two batters to load the bases. Ferguson then came through with a strikeout on seven pitches for the second out of the inning but the Reds made a pitching change to bring in Chase Petty out of the bullpen to face Marcus Semien. He needed just one pitch to get Semien to hit a weak grounder to second base to end the inning. Petty returned for the 8th and needed just four more pitches to record three outs.
The Reds, who hadn’t done much at the plate since the 2nd inning, got things going in the bottom of the 8th. Matt McLain walked to start the bottom of the inning and then Tyler Stephenson followed with a single. That led to JJ Bleday coming through with a 2-out, 3-run home run to push Cincinnati’s lead to 12-0.
With an even bigger lead to work with Chase Petty returned to the mound to try and record three more outs and get a victory. It took him a few more pitches than he had to throw to get his first four outs but he would retire all three batters in order to seal the shutout for the Reds in game one of the series.
Key Moment of the Game
Eugenio Suarez hitting a grand slam in the 2nd inning that made it 9-0. The game was over at that point even with seven more innings to go.
Notes Worth Noting
Eugenio Suarez had his first multi-home run game of the season. Last year he had six 2-home run games and one other 4-home run game. All of those came with Arizona except his final 2-homer game of the season which was with Seattle on September 7th. The last time he had a 2-home run game with the Reds was on September 5th of 2020.
JJ Bleday didn’t make the team out of spring training despite clobbering the ball in February and March. Since joining the team in April he’s played in 43 games and has hit .272/.367/.586 and has 10 doubles, a triple, and 13 home runs.
Chase Burns has made 14 starts this season. He’s now made five where he allowed no runs, three with just one run, and five where he allowed just two runs. His ERA is now down to 2.01 on the year.
The shutout win was the first by the Reds in five weeks with the last one coming on May 10th.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
New York Mets vs Cincinnati Reds
Tuesday June 16th, 7:10pm ET
Kodai Senga (0-4, 9.00 ERA) vs Brady Singer (2-6, 5.61 ERA)
