TJ Friedl hit two home runs on his 29th birthday, and Jonathan India also homered twice and drove in four runs to lead the Cincinnati Reds to a 9-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night. This win completed a three-game sweep of the Cardinals.
Friedl and Barry Larkin — on April 28, 1994 — are the only Reds since at least 1901 to hit multiple home runs in a game on their birthday.
“I don’t know what I did on previous birthdays, but this one I’ll always remember,” Friedl said. “Having my family here with me, celebrating this morning, and then coming to the field and doing this — it’s something I’ve always dreamed of. It was awesome.”
Tyler Stephenson also homered, helping the Reds complete their first three-game sweep since July 2-4 against the New York Yankees.
The Reds have now won four games in a row, the first time they’ve done that since winning seven straight in early June. They are now tied with St. Louis for second place in the NL Central.
On a night where the Reds used six pitchers, they gave up two runs on 10 hits. Sam Moll (3-1) pitched a scoreless third inning to earn the win.
In the fourth inning, Will Benson walked, and Noelvi Marte singled before India ended a 0-for-23 slump with a home run off Gibson. Two batters later, Stephenson hit his 16th home run of the season.
India hit another home run in the fifth inning, a 416-foot blast to center. Shortly after, Friedl hit a towering home run to right and another in the seventh inning off Kyle Leahy.
“I can tell that our team’s clicking,” India said. “We’re playing well, putting together good at-bats, and our pitching is performing really well.”
“We are a playoff team,” he added. “We’ve had tough stretches, but that’s part of baseball. We need to keep finding ways to win, and we’re doing that now. It’s a great time to get hot.”
Elly De La Cruz also had a two-out, RBI double in the eighth inning.
