The Tie Lasted Five Innings
Cincinnati scored in the first when Elly De La Cruz singled and came home on Sal Stewart’s double. Colorado answered in the fifth with Troy Johnston’s sacrifice fly. At 1-1, the game still looked like a measured restart after the All-Star break.
Then the Reds remembered the venue.
Spencer Steer hit a two-run homer in the sixth. Eugenio Suarez followed with a solo shot, giving Cincinnati back-to-back home runs and a 4-1 lead. The Rockies had spent five innings keeping the game orderly. The sixth informed them that order was no longer available.
Steer Used Both Routes Home
Steer’s first homer cleared the wall in left. His second demanded considerably more cardio.
Leading off the eighth, Steer drove a ball into deep right-center and circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run. He finished 2-for-4 with two runs and three RBIs, producing the conventional and track-meet versions of the same result in one night.
De La Cruz went 4-for-5 and added a solo homer in the ninth. Suarez’s sixth-inning shot was his third homer in three games. Cincinnati finished with 11 hits and four home runs, an efficient way to make Coors Field feel less like a Colorado advantage and more like shared office space.
Singer Denied the Other Half
Brady Singer allowed two runs on four hits across seven innings, did not walk a batter and struck out six. He retired the first 12 hitters he faced before Colorado opened the fifth with a single.
Willi Castro homered in the seventh for the Rockies’ other run. Otherwise, Colorado never assembled the kind of sustained inning that could match Cincinnati’s power. Six hits at Coors Field can happen. Six hits while the other team turns four balls into home runs is how the mountain begins to feel uphill.
Singer’s command prevented the game from becoming the usual Denver exchange of damage. Cincinnati got the altitude. Colorado got the view.
The Desk Metric: 71.4% by Homer
The Reds scored five of their seven runs on home runs, a 71.4% home-run run share. Steer accounted for three, while Suarez and De La Cruz supplied one each.
That share explains why the game separated so quickly. Cincinnati did not need multiple long rallies. Four swings supplied most of the scoring, and Singer made sure Colorado never built an equivalent answer.
The Desk Has Ruled
Desk ruling: Steer went over the wall once and around the outfield once, which feels unnecessarily comprehensive. Cincinnati brought four homers, Singer brought seven controlled innings, and the Rockies spent the second half of the game watching the Reds demonstrate every available route home.