DETROIT (AP) — Todd Frazier homered twice and Jay Bruce added a solo shot to lift the Cincinnati Reds to a 5-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night.
The Reds had totaled only four runs in a three-game losing streak, and didn’t get on the board until the fifth against Detroit, but Michael Lorenzen and the Reds’ bullpen made the homers stand up.
Lorenzen (2-2) allowed two runs — one earned — and six hits with three walks in six innings, only striking out one. Three relievers finished, with Aroldis Chapman striking out the side in the ninth — the last on a 103-mph fastball — for his 14th save.
Kyle Ryan (1-1) took his first major-league loss, giving up four runs in 6 1/3 innings. Ryan only surrendered five hits, but three were homers.
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the first. Anthony Gose led off with a bloop double to left, took third on Ian Kinsler’s long fly to right-center and scored when Miguel Cabrera singled through the hole vacated by Cincinnati’s shifted second baseman, Brandon Phillips.
For the second day in a row, the Reds didn’t have any early offensive success. After being shut out by Anibal Sanchez on Monday, Cincinnati only managed one hit in the first four innings against Ryan.
Frazier and Jay Bruce, though, led off the fifth with back-to-back homers.
Detroit immediately tied the score on a strange play in the bottom of the inning. The Tigers had loaded the bases with two out on a single, an error by left fielder Ivan De Jesus Jr. and an intentional walk to Cabrera. Yoenis Cespedes hit a hard grounder off Lorenzen’s leg, allowing James McCann to score, but Joey Votto scooped up the loose ball and threw Gose out at the plate.
The Tigers challenged the call, but it stood after a delay of 3:38.
Frazier led off the seventh with a homer, this time a 425-foot shot that landed in the Cincinnati bullpen in center. Billy Hamilton made it 4-2 later in the inning with a bloop single that scored Bruce.
The Reds had a chance to put the game away in the eighth, loading the bases with one out, but Al Alburquerque came in to strike out Frazier and retire Bruce. Cincinnati did add a run in the ninth on a throwing error by Jose Iglesias.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Reds: RHP Jon Moscot went on the 15-day disabled list with a dislocated left shoulder while the team optioned OF Brennan Boesch to Triple-A Louisville. To reinforce a bullpen depleted by Moscot’s seven-pitch start Monday, they brought up two pitchers from Louisville — righties Donovan Hand and Carlos Contreras.
Tigers: DH Victor Martinez (knee) went 1 for 4 with an RBI double for Triple-A Toledo, and is now hitting .333 in three games of a rehab stint. Martinez, who underwent surgery for a torn meniscus this spring, was hitting .216 with minimal power when he went on the disabled list May 19.
UP NEXT
The teams move to Cincinnati for the second half of their home-and-home series, with aces David Price (6-2, 2.44) for Detroit and Johnny Cueto (4-4, 2.85) for the Reds. Cueto, an oft-mentioned trade target for the Tigers, will be facing Detroit for the first time, while Price is 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA in two career starts against Cincinnati.