Elly De La Cruz homered twice, and Nick Martinez — pitching in his native city on his 34th birthday — earned the win with five scoreless innings as the Cincinnati Reds defeated the host Miami Marlins 10-3 on Monday.
De La Cruz finished 4-for-5 with three RBIs, three runs and four extra-base hits, including two doubles. His homers were clocked at 109 and 108 mph, and one of his doubles was clocked at 113 mph.
Miami was led by Jesus Sanchez, who hit a mammoth 480-foot homer in the sixth inning off of reliever Jakob Junis. It was the longest homer in the majors this year.
The Reds took the lead just six pitches into the game on De La Cruz’s two-run homer. Cincinnati also got a two-run homer from Noelvi Marte in the fourth and Ty France (three hit) socked a solo blast in the fifth. De La Cruz capped Cincinnati’s power show with his second long ball of the night in the eighth.
Martinez (6-5) allowed four hits and no walks. Making his first start since May 22, he struck out a five.
Miami starter Roddery Munoz (2-6) gave up six runs, four earned, on seven hits and three walks in 3 2/3 innings. He fanned two. Munoz also allowed his eighth first-inning homer, tying him for the most in the majors this year.
Cincinnati, which had lost three of its previous four games, won the opener of a four-game series. Miami had a two-game winning streak end.
The Reds jumped on Munoz in the first as leadoff batter Jonathan India singled, and De La Cruz followed with his homer on a first-pitch cutter.
Cincinnati, helped by two Marlins errors one play, made it 4-0 in the third.
Marte’s two-run homer in the fourth made it 6-0, and France gave the Reds a 7-0 advantage with his blast in the fifth.
The Marlins got Sanchez’s solo homer in the sixth, and Miami scored twice more in the seventh, cutting its deficit to 7-3. Jonah Bride’s RBI single was the key hit in the latter rally.
However, De La Cruz’s homer in the eighth stretched Cincinnati’s lead to 8-3, and the Reds cruised from there. Jake Fraley capped the scoring with a two-run double in the ninth.
–Field Level Media
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