Elly De La Cruz hit a pair of long homers and Brady Singer delivered a quality start in his return to Kansas City as the visiting Cincinnati Reds earned a 7-2 victory over the Royals on Tuesday night.
Tyler Stephenson also went deep and TJ Friedl recorded his fifth straight multi-hit game for the Reds, who have totaled 14 runs while taking the first two of this three-game set. De La Cruz smashed solo shots in the fourth and sixth innings — measured at a combined 887 feet — as he posted his second two-homer game of 2025.
Singer (6-3), who spent his first five seasons with the Royals before being traded to Cincinnati in November, allowed just two runs over seven innings. He gave up seven hits and one walk while fanning three. He also retired 12 of 13 batters during one stretch.
Jonathan India, who was swapped by the Reds to get Singer, had two hits with an RBI and Maikel Garcia extended his hitting streak to 12 games for the Royals. However, Kansas City’s overall offensive struggles continued. The Royals have averaged 2.7 runs during their 5-11 rut.
Facing Kansas City opener Daniel Lynch IV, Stephenson gave Cincinnati a 1-0 lead in the second when he barely cleared the wall to the right of center field for his second homer of the series.
The Royals, though, quickly erased that deficit in the bottom of the frame. Kansas City rapped out four singles, including two-out RBI hits from Kyle Isbel and India, to lead 2-1.
Lynch lasted 2 2/3 innings before giving way to Jonathan Bowlan, who yielded a tying homer well over the center-field wall to De La Cruz.
The star Reds shortstop broke that 2-2 tie in the sixth, when he sent a pitch from Taylor Clarke (1-1) into the second deck of the right-field fountains.
Cincinnati broke things open with three runs in the eighth. Friedl scored from first on Santiago Espinal’s infield single that was exacerbated by pitcher John Schreiber’s throwing error. Schreiber also issued a bases-loaded walk to Spencer Steer before De La Cruz, who had been intentionally walked, scored via a fielder’s choice.
Espinal added an RBI double in the ninth.
–Field Level Media
