Oakland Athletics Beat Cincinnati Behind Brandon Moss, Josh Reddick Homers; 4 Scoreless From Pen
By Phil Watson
Mar 25, 2014; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Oakland Athletics pitcher Tommy Milone throws in the fourth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Tommy Milone was good enough in his final start in Arizona this spring and was backed by four scoreless innings from the bullpen as the Oakland Athletics beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-4 at Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Tuesday.
Brandon Moss and Josh Reddick homered for the A’s (13-12), while Milone (2-1) surrendered four runs, three earned, on five hits and a walk in five innings, striking out two.
It was the Reds (12-16) who played long ball at the start, taking a 1-0 lead on Brandon Phillips’ homer off Milone in the top of the first.
It took one swing by Moss to erase the lead in the second. Yoenis Cespedes drew a leadoff walk and Derek Norris singled to left to start the inning. After Reddick lined out, Moss crushed a delivery from Jeff Francis (0-3) to center field for a three-run shot. It was Moss’ fourth home run this spring.
The Reds tied it in the top of the third on a Billy Hamilton sacrifice fly and a Todd Frazier RBI single.
Josh Donaldson and Jed Lowrie walked to start the bottom of the third and after Donaldson moved up to third on Cespedes’ fly out, Norris lined a single to left to give Oakland the lead back at 4-3.
The Reds tied it with an unearned run in the fourth. Zack Cozart reached on an error by Donaldson at third base and moved to third when Eric Sogard couldn’t come up with Jason Bourgeois’ grounder to second. Hamilton hit his second sacrifice fly of the afternoon to tie it.
The offending fielders teamed up to get the run back in the bottom of the inning, though. Sogard reached on an infield single with one out and scored on Donaldson’s double to center.
Reddick belted his second Cactus League homer of the year in the fifth off Reds reliever Trevor Bell to give Oakland a 6-4 lead.
The A’s piled on two more runs in the seventh off reliever Sam LeCure. Donaldson singled, ended up at second on a one-out grounder by Cespedes and scored when Norris doubled to center. Reddick followed with a single up the middle to score Norris.
Jim Johnson worked around two walks in a scoreless sixth for Oakland, Luke Gregerson struck out two of the three hitters he faced in the seventh, Sean Doolittle allowed a hit in the eighth and Andrew Werner recorded a walk and a strikeout in the ninth.
Norris was 3-for-4, raising his Cactus League average to .436, while Donaldson and Reddick had two hits apiece for the A’s.
The A’s will conclude 31 years of spring training at Phoenix Muni on Wednesday when they host the Angels at 12:05 p.m. Pacific. Oakland will be moving to renovated HoHoKam Stadium in Mesa next spring.