Seven HRs, 3 grand slams hit in crazy Reds-Brewers game

MILWAUKEE — For just the fourth time in Major League history, three grand slams were hit in one game.

Tuesday night the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers combined to hit three — two for the Reds and one for the Brewers - in a 16-10 Reds victory.

The two teams would seem unlikely to combine for that kind of offensive output. The Reds had scored just 13 runs in their last six games combined, and the Brewers 10. The Brewers had just four home runs on the season entering the game and were last in the league in runs and home runs.

But the runs came in bunches in this one.

Jay Bruce hit the first homer in the third after Brewers third baseman Jason Rogers extended the inning for Mike Fiers with a throwing error on Brandon Phillips' grounder to third.

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Bruce responded with his third home run of the season.

The Brewers, who didn't have a hit to that point, exploded with four runs in the third to tie it, including two on Martin Maldonado's first home run of the season, and just the fifth for the Brewers as a team in 2015.

The Reds loaded the bases again in the fourth on two hits, a fielder's choice and a walk, before Todd Frazier cleared the bases with his fourth homer of the season.

It was the first time the Reds had two grand slams in a game since Aaron Boone and Eddie Taubensee hit grand slams on Aug. 21, 1999 against Montreal.

The Reds increased their lead with three more runs in the fifth - including a Zack Cozart homer - and they actually led 11-4 through 4 1/2 innings. That ended Jason Marquis' night after five innings and nine hits.

After getting Rogers to fly out to start the sixth, J.J. Hoover suddenly lost his command, walking Logan Schafer and Maldonado. Pinch-hitter Aramis Ramirez followed with an RBI single, and then Hoover walked Jean Segura to load the bases. Price replaced Hoover with Burke Badenhop, the team's lone free-agent signee.

A year ago, Badenhop allowed just one home run all season, pitching 70 2/3 innings for the Red Sox. But he gave up his second in as many days on Tuesday, this one to Brewers second baseman Elian Herrera to make the score 13-10.

But the Reds were able to answer with three more in the top of the seventh as Cozart hit his second homer of the game and fourth of the season. They got two more on Phillips' RBI single to make it 16-10.

Rosecrans writes for the Cincinnati Enquirer, a Gannett property