Reds top Rockies for 1st road series win of year

[June 03, 2016]  DENVER -- The Cincinnati Reds stumbled into Coors Field with 12 losses in 13 games. They put that agonizing stretch behind them and earned their first road series win of the season Thursday night by pounding the Colorado Rockies 11-4.

The victory gave the Reds three wins in the four-game series and back-to-back victories for the first time since they tied their season high with a three-game winning streak May 4-6.

The Reds, who went 8-20 in May, got seven innings from starter Alfredo Simon on Thursday, one night after John Lamb worked seven innings in a 7-2 win.

"Obviously a really tough month of May for us, and it was really nice to get things rolling again," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "The offense was big. Getting two seven-inning starts from Lamb and Simon was big, and being able to dice up the last six outs the last two games."

The Reds pounded Rockies starter Eddie Butler, driving him from the game in a six-run fifth during which the big blow was a three-run homer by Eugenio Suarez, a shot to right field that went an estimated 465 feet. It came on the first pitch from Chad Qualls, who relieved Butler, and put the Reds ahead by seven runs.

Cincinnati hit four homers. Suarez had his first two-homer game and set a career high with 10 total bases. He also tied his career highs in hits (three) and RBIs (four) as he rebounded from a dismal May in which he hit .173 (17-for-98) with five homers, 12 RBIs and 37 strikeouts.

"May for me was really hard, a struggle," Suarez said. "But right now, I feel more strong in my mind."

Zack Cozart and Adam Duvall also homered for the Reds, whose 14-hit attack included nine extra-base hits.

The teams combined to hit 24 home runs in the series, tied for the second most ever in major league history for a series of four games or fewer. The Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers combined to hit 25 home runs at Coors Field from June 27-30, 1996. And the Minnesota Twins and the Athletics hit a combined 24 homers from May 1-3, 1964, at Kansas City.

The drubbing concluded a 2-5 homestand for the Rockies and dropped their record at Coors Field to 10-15. They are now 8 1/2 games out of first place in the National League West and five games below .500, both season highs.

"It's just bad," Rockies right fielder Carlos Gonzalez said. "It's that simple. We have to start playing better at home. We've got to continue to play well on the road, but if we want to get somewhere, we've got to play well at home. That's the bottom line."

Simon took the mound with a 9.60 ERA this season and a dismal history against the Rockies -- 0-2 with a 7.47 ERA overall in seven games, two starts, and 0-1 with a 5.19 ERA in four games, one start, at Coors Field.

However, Simon (2-5) stymied the Rockies. He gave up four runs and five hits, three of them homers, in seven innings and faced just two batters with a runner in scoring position. Simon yielded a two-run homer to Trevor Story that completed the scoring in the seventh when there was little doubt about the outcome.

He surrendered back-to -back homers to Gonzalez and Nolan Arenado in the fourth, trimming the Reds' lead to 4-2 and giving the Rockies hope that was quickly dashed when the Reds unloaded on Butler (2-3).

"I just didn't make good pitches," Butler said, "and when I did, they found a way to hit it. They hit all my mistakes, and they put decent swings on my good pitches."

Butler, who left after facing four batters in the fifth and not retiring any of them, gave up a career-high-tying 11 hits and a career-high eight runs. Butler surrendered a run-scoring triple to Jay Bruce in the first, leadoff homers to Cozart in the third and Duvall in the fourth and a run-scoring double in the fourth to Cozart.

Butler gave up a walk and two more run-scoring hits before departing in the fifth.

"Location is what it usually comes down to," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said, "and a lot of balls were in the middle of the plate and he got hit hard. He had a hard time avoiding the barrel."

NOTES: Rockies CF Charlie Blackmon drew a walk in the seventh inning to extend his career-high on-base streak to 28 games. ... Reds 2B Brandon Phillips returned to the lineup after missing the previous two games due to a sore left ankle. ... Rockies LHP Boone Logan (left shoulder inflammation) threw 20 pitches in a bullpen session. He is scheduled to throw one inning Saturday on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Albuquerque. ... Rockies C Nick Hundley (strained left oblique) caught seven innings Thursday in the first game of a doubleheader, then served as the designated hitter in the second game for Triple-A Albuquerque. He went a combined 1-for-6. He might rejoin the Rockies on Friday at San Diego. ... Reds RHP Homer Bailey is scheduled to throw off a mound this weekend. He underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2015 and had to halt his rehab when he had a setback in April.

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