Cincinnati Reds Beat Braves 8-4 Behind Two Bruce Triples

61. 4. 17. . 8

Jay Bruce had two triples in the last two seasons combined. He matched that total in one game against the Braves on Saturday night as the Cincinnati Reds took down the Atlanta Braves, 8-4.

Bruce’s first triple came in the fourth and started a two-out rally to get the Reds on the board for the first time. His triple was followed by an RBI single from Brandon Phillips and two batters later, Brayan Pena brought Phillips home with a single to center to make it a 2-0 game.

The right fielder’s second triple came in the fifth and knocked in Zack Cozart and Joey Votto, who both singled earlier in the inning, to give the Reds a 4-0 lead.

Jason Marquis no-hit the Braves through four innings before giving up a single to Andrelton Simmons to start the bottom of the fifth inning. Two batters later, Cameron Maybin cut the Reds’ lead in half with a two-run home run, his fourth of the season.

Marlon Byrd helped the Reds answer right back the very next half inning, launching a solo home run to stretch the lead back out to three. Todd Frazier added a solo shot in the seventh to make it 6-2.

The Braves tacked on another run in the seventh on an RBI double from Simmons and Marquis exited the game later in the inning. Overall, Marquis went 6 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on five hits with four strikeouts and two walks.

Jumbo Diaz came on to relieve Marquis and was only able to record one out, leaving two runners on base for Tony Cingrani. The lefty was able to get out of the inning, however, and pitched another scoreless inning in the eighth. Something tells me he’s going to be the eighth inning guy moving forward.

Per C. Trent Rosecrans on Twitter, the Reds last 10 home runs to this point had been solo shots. Cozart changed that in the top of the ninth, smacking a two-run home run to make it an 8-3 Reds’ lead.

Kevin Gregg gave up a run in the ninth, but the Reds held on to get back to .500 at 12-12.

Other Notes:

Today marked Cozart’s fourth three-hit game of the season. His fourth three-hit game last year came on August 24.
A 2-for-4 day for Phillips gives him a modest six-game hitting streak with multi-hit games in his last three.

Up Next: The Reds and Braves meet for their series finale tomorrow at 1:35 p.m. ET. Johnny Cueto (2-2, 1.95 ERA) will face off against Julio Teheran (2-1, 4.67 ERA).

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