Dansby Swanson homered as part of his four-hit game while starter Max Fried pitched seven strong innings to lead the visiting Atlanta Braves to a 9-1 rout of the Cincinnati Reds Friday night.
Austin Riley belted his team-leading 19th home run while Swanson finished 4-for-5 with two doubles and fell a triple shy of the cycle for the Braves, who won for the 22nd time in 28 games.
The game also featured the return of right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. after a six-day absence after taking a foul ball off his left foot against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The star leadoff slugger reached base four times, taking a pitch off his right foot in his first at-bat in the first inning before singling and doubling.
Acuna was hit again in the back of the left shoulder by Reds reliever Jeff Hoffman in the ninth.
Fried (8-2) delivered another quality start, his 12th in 16 starts for the Braves this season, allowing just one run and five hits over seven innings to avenge his loss to the Reds on Opening Day in Atlanta.
Tommy Pham drove in Cincinnati’s only run and finished with three hits for the Reds, who suffered their ninth straight home loss, their longest such skid since losing nine straight from May 27 to June 19, 2001.
One of the lone bright spots for the Reds was the effort by starter and tough-luck loser Mike Minor (1-5). The left-hander, facing the team that drafted him in 2009 for the first time, recovered from allowing Riley’s first-inning homer to register his first quality start with Cincinnati.
Matt Olson singled and Riley drilled a hanging changeup from Minor over the wall in center for a 2-0 Atlanta lead in the first.
Minor, in his sixth start of the year, allowed just those two runs on six hits, striking out three and walking none, and left the game with Cincinnati trailing only 2-1.
Reliever Joel Kuhnel retired the first two batters of the seventh before Michael Harris II walked, Acuna doubled and Swanson drilled a hanging slider to the first row of seats in left-center for his 14th homer and a 5-1 Atlanta lead.
The Braves added three more off reliever Luis Cessa in the eighth and one more against Hoffman in the ninth.
–Field Level Media
