TJ Friedl’s two-out, two-run double in the sixth inning rallied the Cincinnati Reds past the visiting Minnesota Twins 6-5 in the opener of a three-game series Tuesday.
Will Benson added a two-run double while Jake Fraley chipped in a two-run single for the Reds, who scored all six runs with two outs.
Scott Barlow (2-0) threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of hard-luck starter Andrew Abbott, who left after 5 2/3 innings having allowed five runs, only one earned.
Emilio Pagan worked around two walks to pitch a scoreless ninth for his 17th save in 19 chances.
Twins reliever Brock Stewart (1-1) gave up three straight two-out hits in the sixth after Harrison Bader’s two-out, three-run homer off the glove of Fraley in right put Minnesota up 5-4 in the top of the inning.
Ryan Jeffers and Trevor Larnach each had two hits for the Twins, who lost their fifth straight and ninth in 11 games. Jeffers left in the fifth inning with a bruise on his right hand. X-rays were negative.
Twins center fielder Byron Buxton robbed Benson of a home run to end the second inning and belted his 12th homer of the year to nearly the same spot in the third against Abbott.
Minnesota’s right-handed starter David Festa set down the first eight Cincinnati batters before walking Matt McLain with two outs in the third. He walked two more batters in the fourth, but this time Benson got the better of Festa, lining a 3-2 fastball to the gap in left-center for Cincinnati’s first hit, a two-run double that put the Reds up 2-1.
Aided by a passed ball on catcher Jeffers on a third strike that would’ve ended the inning, the Reds tacked on two more runs on Fraley’s single to right.
Third baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand threw high to first base on a two-out grounder by Ty France in the sixth. That opened the door for an RBI single from Larnach and the go-ahead three-run homer by Bader.
The game was halted 15 minutes prior to the bottom of the third, as home plate umpire Tony Randazzo left the game in concussion protocol after taking a foul tip from Tyler Stephenson to the mask in the bottom of the second. Second base umpire Clint Vondrak took Randazzo’s place behind the plate.
