Thames hits 11th home run in rout
MILWAUKEE — Eric Thames hit his major league- leading 11th home run and the Milwaukee Brewers cruised to a 9- 1 victory over the Reds on Tuesday night.
In his first season with the Brewers, Thames capped a five- run sixth with a two- run drive off reliever Robert Stephenson.
Thames’ blast gave him eight homers against the Reds in six games.
Thames tied Willie Stargell with the most home runs against one team in April in major- league history. Stargell hit eight against the Atlanta Braves in April 1971.
Thames is the second player since 1913 to homer in six straight games against the Reds, and the first since the Phillies’ Stan Lopata from July 20- Aug. 28, 1957.
Brewers manager Craig Counsell took pity on the Reds and took Thames out of the game in the seventh.
Hernan Perez had a pair of RBI triples, then homered off Stephenson leading off the sixth, and Jonathan Villar had a pair of two- run singles.
Zach Davies ( 2- 2) allowed six hits in five scoreless innings, lowering his ERA from 8.24 to 6.57. He stranded a pair of runners in three innings.
Oliver Drake pitched a hitless sixth and Tommy Milone allowed two hits over three innings, including Adam Duvall’s eighth- inning homer, for his second bigleague save, his first since August 2015.
Scott Feldman ( 1- 2) gave up four runs, five hits and five walks in five innings.
Perez drove in Manny Pina with triples in the second and fourth innings, and Villar’s first tworun single boosted the lead to 4- 0 later in the fourth.
Cincinnati had runners at second and third in the fourth before Davies threw a called third strike past Tucker Barnhart and retired Feldman on a flyout.