HOUSTON — After scuffling for the past week, the Reds’ offense broke out in a big way Saturday night.
Cincinnati scored 10 runs in the first inning against Houston en route to a 13-9 win at Daikin Park.
The Reds sent 14 batters to the plate and scored as many runs in the first inning off Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. and reliever Logan VanWey as they had in the previous six games combined.
“We stepped on them early, and I think the biggest thing is we stayed in control the whole time,” TJ Friedl said. “They punched back a couple times, and for us, we answered back a few innings in there instead of stepping back. I think that ultimately helped us keep control.”
It was the first time the Reds scored 10 runs in the first inning since they plated 14 in the first in an 18-2 win against the Astros on Aug. 3, 1989, in Cincinnati. The Reds’ last 10-run inning overall was the second inning of an 11-6 win over the Pirates on July 29, 2019, also in Cincinnati.
Elly De La Cruz hit a three-run home run and an RBI groundout, Tyler Stephenson and Friedl had RBI singles, Will Benson had an RBI double, Matt McLain worked an RBI walk and Gavin Lux capped the first inning with a two-run single.
The Reds tallied 11 baserunners on five hits, five walks and one hit-by-pitch in the inning.
“That’s awesome,” Friedl said. “I would love to do that all the time. That was great. We had a great game plan going into it, and everybody stuck to their approach. I think it’s kind of like that snowball effect, where hitting is contagious and it’s one after another. That was just a great example of it.”
McLain added a two-run homer in the third as Cincinnati built a 12-1 lead, and the newly-acquired Connor Joe had an RBI single in the sixth.
Joe finished with two hits in his Reds debut, and every batter in the starting lineup reached base at least once.
Friedl went 3-for-4 with two walks and scored a career-high-tying three runs, with two of them coming in the first inning.
“That’s not going to happen every night, but if he’s on the base, that makes everybody better,” manager Terry Francona said of Friedl. “Seeing Elly go the other way like that and get rewarded was huge. Seeing McLain jump on one. There were a lot of good things that happened. We just had to keep fighting because we let them back in the game.”
The Reds walked a total of nine times to go along with 12 hits.
“We just kind of formulated our approach and everyone stuck to it,” Friedl said. “The big thing for us is everybody buying into what we are [doing] as a team and our approach against a starting pitcher that day. I think you kind of saw that, the way we stuck to the game plan and waited for that pitch to hit. If you didn’t get that pitch, then take the walk and pass the baton to the next guy.”
Cincinnati needed the run support, as Houston scored six runs in the third and added a run in the fifth to cut the lead to four.
“It kind of felt like being at the dentist,” Francona said. “Everything came out OK, but it wasn’t really all that fun. I was so glad even when we tacked on one later, because they were coming. We were in our bullpen so early — not as early as them, but just about.”
The win was much-needed for the Reds, who improved to 2-4 on their current seven-game road trip, giving confidence to an offense that had been struggling.
“I think that for us is letting go and playing free, playing aggressive,” Friedl said. “And that’s us. We know our potential. We know what we have. So for us, we kind of just as an offense just went out there and we were aggressive from the first pitch. I think that was the result of it. Everything else that went with it — we got the win, and that’s all that matters.”
