CINCINNATI—Max Schuemann and Lawrence Butler each hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning to propel the Oakland Athletics past the Cincinnati Reds 5–4 on Tuesday night.
Zack Gelof added a solo shot in the eighth and All-Star closer Mason Miller hung on after giving up two runs and four hits in a shaky ninth. With runners at second and third, he struck out pinch-hitter Amed Rosario for his 22nd save.
Oakland had one hit and trailed 1–0 through six innings, but rallied to hand Cincinnati its ninth straight loss in interleague play.
“When we’ve been behind where we haven’t scored first, we haven’t been very successful this season,” A’s Manager Mark Kotsay said. “It’s nice that we got a come-from-behind win tonight and finished it off.”
A’s starter Mitch Spence allowed a run and five hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked three and struck out three.
Michel Otañez (1–0) got two outs in the sixth for his first major-league win.
The Reds, who have five starting pitchers on the injured list, figured to go deep into their bullpen Tuesday.
Jakob Junis made his fourth start of the season, his first since joining the Reds, and retired all 12 batters he faced, with three strikeouts. He had made eight relief appearances after being acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers on July 30.
“Jakob just threw a ton of strikes,“ Reds Manager David Bell said. ”We didn’t know how far he could go. To be able to get those four innings set us up to give us a chance to win.”
Oakland didn’t have a baserunner until Buck Farmer walked Seth Brown with one out in the fifth. The first hit for the A’s came when Schuemann doubled off Farmer leading off the sixth.
In his next at-bat, Schuemann homered off Tony Santillan (1–2) to put the A’s ahead 2–1 with two outs in the seventh.
“I went in with the approach to attack his aggressiveness with the fastball and put a good swing on it,” Schuemann said. “It’s been a grind. Just go out there and trust the process every day.”
Two batters later, Butler launched his 15th homer off Justin Wilson.
Gelof added his 16th home run off Casey Legumina an inning later.
Oakland has 162 home runs, which was tied with the Minnesota Twins for seventh in the majors. More than 50 percent of the runs for the A’s this season have come on homers.
“We’ve been able to hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Kotsay said. “It was nice to see these guys tonight get some pitches they can handle and put some good swings on them.”
