“I wish we won 100 in a row,” Spencer Steer said. “We played some really good baseball the last two weeks. We’ve built a pretty good culture, good bond in that clubhouse and I think we believe that we can play with these heavyweights.”
Each team homered four times, taking the teams’ combined HR total to 17 through the first two games of the series after nine were hit in the Reds’ 11-10 win on Friday night.
McLain and Steer hit two-run homers for the Reds, and Fraley homered for the third straight game.
Iglesias, who pitched for the Reds from 2015-20, started the ninth by striking out TJ Friedl. After the homers, Iglesias got his 11th save in 13 chances.
“I never feel safe here with a lead and I never feel like we’re out of it,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “You never feel good until it’s over.”
Cincinnati’s winning streak was its longest since April 30 to May 12, 1957. The Reds have not won 13 straight since their final six games in 1918 and their first seven in 1919.
“It was quite a streak,” Reds manager David Bell said. “It went on for a while so we didn’t get used to it and that’s a good thing. It was a great streak. We all appreciate what we were able to accomplish against good teams and we learned a lot about ourselves and we became a better team. We became stronger.
“But as appreciative of the streak as we are, everything who we are and what we have in our clubhouse does not go away.”
Boosted by the streak, the Reds drew 43,498 for their first consecutive full-capacity sellouts since June 24-26, 2016, when Pete Rose’s No. 14 was retired.
“Everybody in this clubhouse enjoys playing in that type of atmosphere,” d’Arnaud said. “It was like the playoffs. Their energy was contagious. Electric, for sure.”
Michael Tonkin (2-0) pitched 2 1/3 hitless innings for the Braves, who won eight in a row before losing Friday’s series opener.
Ashcraft made his first start since he was hit by a comebacker June 8. He allowed six runs and 10 hits in four innings.
“I felt like that was one of the better outings that I’ve had in a while. It just didn’t go our way today,” he said.
Atlanta took a 2-0 lead on solo homers by d’Arnaud in the second and Albies in the third, the latter a drive off the bridge connecting the Sun and Moon Deck in right with the main concourse. Ozuna added an RBI single in the third and McLain’s homer cut the gap to 3-2.
Austin Riley hit an RBI double in the fourth and scored on Olson’s NL-leading 24th home run, his third of the series.
Ozuna’s seventh-inning homer was his 15th of the season and 13th since the start of May, and it put the Braves ahead 7-4.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.
CINCINNATI — Rookie Chase Burns became the first starting pitcher in the expansion era to strike out the first five batters he faced in his major league debut.
He was not able to carry the momentum through the rest of the game.
The 22-year old Cincinnati Reds right-hander, the second overall pick in last July’s amateur draft, allowed three runs over five innings Tuesday night in a 5-4, 11-inning win over the New York Yankees.
Burns struck out his first five batters before Jazz Chisholm Jr‘s single. He gave up six hits and struck out eight, the seventh Cincinnati starter to have at least that many in his first career start.
“We watched for everything,” Reds manager Terry Francona said of Burns. “He didn’t get too excited. I think he enjoyed the competition. There’s a lot to like.”
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Burns also joined the Yankees’ Al Leiter and Tampa Bay’s Wade Davis as the only pitchers since 1961 whose first six outs in their debuts were strikeouts. Both gave up a run during the first two innings.
Burns struck out seven of the his first 10 hitters and allowed only one hit until Ben Rice led off the fourth by connecting on a hanging slider that went 413 feet and two-thirds of the way into the right field sun deck at Great American Ball Park.
Aaron Judge followed with a base hit. Burns retired the next two hitters, Chisholm got aboard with a single and Anthony Volpe hit a two-run triple when center fielder TJ Friedl made an ill-advised dive and the ball got by him.
“I think he’s a good pitcher,” Francona said. “I don’t think him giving up a couple runs is going to make somebody fold. If that was the case, we wouldn’t have brought him up.”
Burns averaged 98.1 mph with 48 fastballs, topping out with a pair at 100.1 mph in the first inning. He threw 24 sliders, eight changeups and one curveball. New York was 1-for-9 with six strikeouts in his first time through the order and 5-for-9 with a triple and home run the second time through.
Burns threw 53 of 81 pitches for strikes. His first big league pitch was a 98.4 mph fastball to Trent Grisham that just caught the inside corner of the plate. He got Judge to chase a 91.1 mile slider for the third out in the first inning.
“I guess you have to say Judge. I have watched him. He’s a big dude and one of the best hitters in the game,” Burns said when asked if any one strikeout stood out more than the others. “It was probably my favorite one.”
Burns fell behind 3-0 on three of the first 10 batters before ending up with strikeouts, and started 11 of 21 batters with strikes and induced 12 swing and misses. He is the fifth first-round selection from last year’s draft to reach the majors, joining Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz, Royals outfielder Jac Caglianone, Angels second baseman Christian Moore and Astros outfielder Cam Smith, who was selected by the Cubs before going to Houston in the Kyle Tucker trade last December.
“Of course,” Bochy said. “He’s a weapon whether he starts or he’s in the bullpen, but he’s stretched out. You’ve heard me say he’s got starter’s stuff.”
Latz took a no-hitter into the seventh inning Tuesday night against Baltimore, and although the Rangers blew a four-run lead, they recovered to win 6-5 in 10 innings. Latz set career highs in innings pitched (six-plus) and pitches (88) and lowered his ERA on the season to 3.22.
“I don’t know the plans going forward. I was kind of just trying to soak it all up today,” Latz said. “It was just a lot of fun out there.”
In his third career start and second of the season, Latz didn’t allow a hit until Ramon Laureano singled to center to start the bottom of the seventh. A walk later, Latz was removed, but a 4-0 Texas lead didn’t last much longer.
Latz walked three and struck out four — including the last three hitters of the fifth inning. His previous longest outing in the majors was Thursday, when he threw 5 2/3 innings of relief in a loss to Kansas City.
“That’s one of the better jobs in all of baseball — to be a starting pitcher,” Latz said. “I’m not going to say I don’t want to be a starting pitcher. Obviously I do. I’m comfortable either way obviously. If it’s in the rotation, it’s great.”
MILWAUKEE — Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Oneil Cruz said he lost track of the outs when he didn’t run out a double-play grounder, a move that led to his removal in his club’s 9-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night.
The Pirates trailed 7-3 and had a runner on first with one out in the seventh when Cruz grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Cruz slowed down after the Brewers got the force play at second, and he said afterward he believed that was the third out of the inning.
Pirates manager Don Kelly removed Cruz in favor of a defensive replacement in the eighth inning and said it was due to Cruz’s “energy and effort going down the line.” Cruz said after the game he understood Kelly’s decision.
“DK had all the rights to do what he did, and I’ll back him up on that,” Cruz said through an interpreter. “It was my fault because I thought there were two outs in that situation. That’s why I let off running to first base.”
Kelly said he explained to Cruz the reason for the benching.
“We talked,” Kelly said. “He knows the expectation. Right there, I feel we fell a little short.”
When he was asked whether Cruz would be back in the starting lineup Wednesday, Kelly was noncommittal.
“We’re going to sit down and talk, and we’ll figure that out,” Kelly said.
Cruz, 26, has batted just .156 (12-of-77) with 31 strikeouts this month after having a productive start to the season that included owning a .911 OPS in early May and hitting a 122.9 mph homer against the Brewers on May 25. That homer was the hardest-hit ball since Statcast started tracking that data in 2015.
Cruz is now hitting .208 with a .321 on-base percentage, a .404 slugging percentage, 13 homers, 31 RBIs and 26 steals in 71 games.
“He’s struggling at the plate right now,” Kelly said. “It’s difficult when you’re going through that and trying to figure it out. He’s working hard to do that. That’s one thing we’ve got to be mindful of, is not letting that offense carry over to defense and base running, and the energy and effort that we’re giving on any other aspects of the game as well.”
Cruz said his hitting slump “had nothing to do with what happened today” and isn’t impacting his focus on the basepaths or in the field. But he also said he appreciated Kelly’s instructions to him and noted how he can learn from veteran teammates Andrew McCutchen and Tommy Pham.
“They’re a really good example,” Cruz said. “They always run hard. They always go out there to do their 100%. That’s a teaching point for me. I accepted the way DK came to me and explained it and presented it to me.”