The Cincinnati Reds spent Sunday afternoon trading blows at altitude and landed the last one, beating the Colorado Rockies 9-6 at Coors Field behind two home runs from Tyler Stephenson to close out a road series win.
Stephenson did the heavy lifting, finishing 3-for-4 with three RBI. He turned on a two-run shot in the first inning, added a solo drive in the fifth and doubled in the seventh. It was the third multi-homer game of his career, and two of them have come against Colorado.
He had company. Sal Stewart and Nathaniel Lowe each homered and drove in three, giving Cincinnati four long balls on the day. That was more than enough support for Hunter Greene, who worked six innings, struck out seven and walked none. The three runs charged to him flatter a start that was sharper than the line suggests; this was Greene’s third turn since returning July 4 from March surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow, and the velocity and the swing-and-miss are back.
The Rockies made it a nervous afternoon anyway. Hunter Goodman homered three times and drove in five, taking Greene deep twice before adding a two-run shot off Sam Moll in the eighth that pulled Colorado within 9-5. Goodman became the first Rockies player to record two three-homer games in the same season. The Reds bullpen gave a run back but closed it out.
Cincinnati moved to 45-53, still last in the NL Central, but a series win at Coors is worth banking for a team that has spent the month looking for offense to travel with its rotation.
For fantasy managers, Stephenson is the takeaway: a catcher hitting cleanup with real pop is streaming-proof in most formats, and the multi-hit, multi-homer days keep coming. Greene is a firm hold — the strikeout stuff has returned, though the pitch counts are worth monitoring this early in his return. Stewart’s three-RBI game is more of a deep-league note than a waiver alarm, but the at-bats are trending his way in the middle of the order.
