September 14-Eli De La Cruz hit the first grand slam of his career and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Minnesota Twins 8-4 on Friday night in Minneapolis.
De La Cruz hit a six-run homer in the seventh inning for the Reds (72-77), who won the first game of a three-game series. T.J. Friedel went 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs, and Ty France had a double and drove in a run.
Byron Buxton hit a solo home run for Minnesota (78-69) in his return from injury. Rookie Brooks Lee had a two-run single and Willi Castro had an RBI single.
Reds right-hander Julian Aguirre (2-0) allowed three runs on three hits in 6 1/3 innings. He allowed two walks and struck out four.
Twins right-hander Bailey Ober (12-7) allowed five runs on six hits in 6 2/3 innings. He walked twice and struck out six.
Cincinnati opened the scoring in the second overtime. Friedel singled to right field and hit his 12th home run.
Buxton hit a solo home run in the fifth inning, tying the score at 1–1. He hit his 17th home run in the first game after suffering a hip injury on August 12 and taking a low-speed pitch into the stands.
The score remained tied until the Reds scored six runs in the seventh inning.
After Spencer Steere’s triple, Friedel gave Cincinnati a 2-1 lead with an RBI bunt. France hit an RBI double in the next at-bat to make it 3-1.
The Reds soon gave up two outs to De La Cruz, who swung at the first pitch and launched the ball 398 feet over the center-right field wall. It was his 24th home run of the season and his first grand slam in 245 career games.
Minnesota scored three runs in the seventh inning to make the score 7–4. Castro hit an RBI single to left and Lee hit a two-run single to right.
Friedel gave the Reds safety in the eighth inning. His RBI single led off the inning and extended Cincinnati’s lead to 8–4.
——Visual-level media
