CINCINNATI — Center fielder Billy Hamilton reached base four times, recorded four steals to reach 40 for the season, and scored three times, sparking the Cincinnati Reds to an 11-7 victory over the Minnesota Twins in the opener of a three-game interleague series Monday night at Great American Ball Park.
Second baseman Brian Dozier homered for Minnesota (40-36), which trailed 9-1 after three innings but scored six times in the fourth to get within two.
Reds relievers Nate Adcock, Manny Parra and Aroldis Chapman combined for five scoreless innings to stave off the Twins’ comeback.
Adcock (1-0) earned his first National League win, and first since 2011.
Twins starter Mike Pelfrey (5-5) lasted just two-plus innings and allowed eight earned runs to take the loss.
The Reds added some insurance runs on a perfectly placed suicide squeeze bunt by shortstop Eugenio Suarez in the sixth and right fielder Jay Bruce’s RBI double in the seventh.
Suarez went 3-for-5 with three RBIs for Cincinnati, which tied a season high for a nine-inning game with 17 hits.
Catcher Tucker Barnhart had a career-high four hits and two RBIs for Cincinnati (35-40) to snap a three-game losing streak.
Second baseman Ivan De Jesus Jr. had a pair of RBI hits. Shortstop Eugenio Suarez’s two-run double in the third put the Reds ahead 7-1. Later in the third, the Reds loaded the bases against right-hander Alex Meyer, and first baseman Joey Votto drove home two more runs with a long single.
However, Minnesota roared back with a six-run fourth, highlighted by Dozier’s three-run blast on an 0-2 pitch from Mike Leake, trimming Cincinnati’s lead to 9-7. It was Dozier’s 16th homer of the season.
Despite being staked to an eight-run lead, Leake was gone after four innings, having allowed seven runs and nine hits.
NOTES: Twins RF Torii Hunter made his first career appearance at Great American Ball Park, the last current ballpark he had yet to play in. … Minnesota is playing at Great American for the first time since 2012, when it took two of three. Just five current Twins players appeared in that series. … Reds C Devin Mesoraco had season-ending surgery Monday to repair a left hip impingement. He won’t begin full activity until Jan. 1. … Cincinnati RHP Raisel Iglesias will begin a rehab assignment Tuesday with Triple-A Louisville. He went on the disabled list June 5 with a strained left oblique. He is expected to make two or three starts to reach the desired 90 pitches. … Reds LHP Tony Cingrani, on the DL since June 15 with a strained left shoulder, will begin a Triple-A rehab stint Saturday.