CINCINNATI — If it wasn’t too surprising when the Reds hit four home runs off the Braves’ Mike Minor on Monday night, it was another matter when they hit three off Brandon Beachy on Tuesday night.
After allowing only one home run in his previous 72 innings, Beachy gave up a career-high three homers in the first four innings of a 4-3 loss to the Reds at Great American Ball Park.
Reds shortstop Brandon Phillips had two of the homers. Zach Cozart hit the other. He also hit a home run Monday.
Braves leadoff man Michael Bourn had the first two-homer game of his career, but his solo shots in the first and eighth innings weren’t enough as the Braves lost for the third time in four games and fifth in nine games.
“Always nice to do that. It’s my first time ever doing it,” Bourn said. “But all in all, you want the victory.”
Beachy (5-2) was charged with four runs and six hits in seven innings in his first loss since his season debut. He had not allowed more than two runs in his previous seven starts.
“Probably a combination” of the ballpark and mistake pitches, he said. “I’m not going to let the ballpark be an excuse for any of those homers. Other than those three pitches, if those stay singles, I have a game to be proud of.”
The Braves are 2-3 on their seven-game trip and need to win the next two in Cincinnati to salvage a split of the four-game series. All of Cincinnati’s eight runs in the series have come on homers.
“They’re swinging it and getting them over the fences,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “I thought Beachy was terrific. We just didn’t have any offense.”
Long balls have been the Braves’ pitchers’ undoing for two nights, while their own offense has struggled in a park that’s conducive to scoring. The Braves managed only two hits in Monday’s 4-1 loss, when Minor gave up a career-high four homers. They’ve scored only eight runs in their past four games and 31 runs in their 4-5 stretch.
Beachy entered the game as the major league leader in ERA (1.33) and opponents’ slugging percentage (.224). He had allowed one home run this season and was 5-0 in his past seven starts.
The ascendant second-year pitcher has given up more than one homer in three of 37 career starts, including both of his starts at the Reds’ hitter-friendly ballpark on the banks of the Kentucky River. Beachy gave up two homers against the Reds on July 24, after giving up two at Colorado on July 19. And that’s the extent of his multi-homer misadventures.
While the Reds have teed off for two nights, the Braves’ offense has continued in a funk. They got two hits in eight innings against previously winless Mike Leake on Monday, and Mat Latos (3-2) limited them to five hits and one walk with eight strikeouts in seven innings Tuesday.
Bourn homered to start the game, then Latos retired the next eight batters before Bourn doubled in the third inning. Bourn homered in the eighth off right-hander Logan Ondrusek, giving him twice as many homers in one night as he had hit all season.
Before getting three extra-base hits Tuesday, Bourn had been 1-for-17 in his past four games.
The odd thing about the Reds’ two-night power-hitting display has been the participants, which haven’t included Joey Votto or Jay Bruce.
Votto and Bruce had 12 homers between them in 17 home games before this series, while all other Reds had a combined six homers this season at Great American Ball Park before the Braves came to town.
Those other players have seven homers in the past two nights, while Votto and Bruce have none.
Before giving up three homers, Beachy had allowed only one in 72 innings over 11-plus starts dating to Sept. 5.
