Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Nick Martini belted two-run homers to lead the visiting Cincinnati Reds to an 11-4 win Sunday and a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox.
Jake Fraley reached base four times on two hits and two walks and scored three runs for the Reds, who outscored the White Sox 27-5 in their first-ever sweep of the White Sox in interleague play.
The White Sox fell to 2-13 on the season, the worst 15-game start in their 124-year history. The previous worst was set by the 1968 White Sox, who also started 2-12 but won their 15th game.
Graham Ashcraft (2-1) earned the win, allowing five hits and two runs — one earned — over 5 2/3 innings. He struck out eight and walked two.
Encarnacion-Strand, who drove in four runs, opened the scoring with a two-run homer off Chicago’s Michael Soroka (0-2) in a four-run third. Soroka struggled with his control all day, issuing a career-high six walks, two more than his previous high.
Soroka allowed five hits on five runs with four strikeouts.
Martini, who had three hits, belted his first career homer against a lefty in the fifth as the Reds took a commanding 6-2 lead.
For the second straight game, the Reds displayed brilliant outfield defense, with Will Benson robbing Lenyn Sosa of extra bases on a sliding catch of a fly deep to the gap in right-center in the second inning.
Ironically, two innings later, Sosa lifted a routine fly to right field that Jake Fraley dropped along the line for a two-base error, allowing Dominic Fletcher to score the second run of the inning as the White Sox drew with two, 4-2.
Fletcher drove home Chicago’s first run with a two-out single to center to score Andrew Vaughn, who opened the fourth with a walk off Ashcraft.
Lucas Sims was called on to get the final out in the sixth when the White Sox put two runners on against Ashcraft with a pair of soft singles.
The White Sox were booed loudly in the seventh during Cincinnati’s four-run seventh, an inning that featured dropped fly balls in the outfield by Robbie Grossman and Dominic Fletcher.
Tyler Stephenson was awarded a two-run double on Fletcher’s missed catch on the warning track that sparked the disapproval from the fans.
–Field Level Media
