Cincinnati Reds pinch hitter Adam Duvall, right, is greeted at home by Tucker Barnhart, after the pair scored on Duvall’s home run off Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Justin Grimm, during the sixth inning of a baseball game Monday in Chicago.
Duvall, who played for the Sanford Mainers in 2009, and Eugenio Suarez hit two-run homers in a four-run sixth inning and the Reds took advantage of two late Chicago errors for a 13-6 victory over the Cubs on Monday night.
Duvall, who was called up from Triple-A earlier Monday, snapped a 5-5 tie with his pinch-hit homer off Cubs reliever Justin Grimm (2-4), who surrendered all four runs in one-third of an inning.
Grimm started the inning by walking Ivan DeJesus Jr. and then gave up the home run to Suarez that tied it.
The Reds, who entered Monday having lost five of their last six, used the rally to erase a two-run deficit. Duvall, who came to the Reds from San Francisco in a deadline deal in July, had 30 minor league homers this season.
“Any time you can ride that wave it’s good,” said Duvall, who admitted completely misreading the first pitch he saw from Grimm. “A lot of games are won on big innings so any time you have a big inning like that – and obviously we had another one late to put the game away – it’s good as a team.”
Cincinnati tackled on six unearned runs in the ninth off Chicago relievers Travis Wood and James Russell after second baseman Starlin Castro committed two of his three errors in the inning.
The big inning also included Reds closer Aroldis Chapman reaching on an error by Castro before scoring all the way from first on a two-run double by Jason Bourgeois.
“From an entertainment value standpoint, that had to be the game of the year,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “It was an entertaining game, but I don’t want a ton more like that. I like the win, but Geez Louise, there was some craziness to that.”
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
