The Detroit Tigers hit four homers, two of them from Colt Keith, to take a 5-4 win against the host Cincinnati Reds in the opener of a three-game series on Friday.
Parker Meadows and Riley Greene also went deep for the Tigers, who have alternated losses and wins over their past six games. Greene finished with three hits and Matt Vierling had two hits.
Tigers starer Reese Olson (3-8) tossed 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits and two walks with eight strikeouts. Jason Foley gave up two runs on four hits in the ninth but held on for his 14th save.
Reds starter Carson Spiers (2-2) served up three homers in 4 2/3 innings after having allowed just one total in his previous eight starts this year. He was tagged for four runs on eight hits and two walks while fanning three.
Spencer Steer singled and homered for Cincinnati, which was coming off a three-game road sweep of the New York Yankees.
The Reds made it close in the ninth. Elly De La Cruz hit a leadoff single, stole second, advanced to third on a balk, and scored on Steer’s one-out infield single to make it 5-3. Steer pulled the Reds within one when he scored on Nick Martini’s triple.
Martini was thrown out at the plate on Tyler Stephenson’s grounder to third. After Noelvi Marte singled, Santiago Espinal grounded out to end the game.
Greene gave the Tigers a 5-2 advantage in the seventh with a leadoff homer in the seventh. He worked back from an 0-2 count to even it before slugging his 17th long ball of the season.
Detroit led 4-0 before Steer delivered Cincinnati’s first hit, 425-foot homer into the upper deck in left field leading off the fifth.
The Reds narrowed the deficit to 4-2 in the sixth inning. Jonathan India hit a two-out single to right field and De La Cruz followed with a walk. India went to third on Jeimer Candelario’s single and scored on a throwing error by shortstop Ryan Kreidler.
Meadows marked his return to the majors with a bang in the third inning. The center fielder, who spent the past two months in Triple-A Toledo, belted a leadoff homer to right field, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead. It was his third major league homer of the year.
Two outs later, Keith sent a changeup to right-center, putting Detroit ahead 2-0.
In the fifth, with one out and Vierling on, Keith knocked his second of the night and seventh of the year to make it 4-0.
–Field Level Media