Reds Explode for 4-Homer Fourth Against Phillies; Stewart's Rookie Power Carries Deep-Lineup Message

The Reds took down Philadelphia 11-5 on Wednesday at Great American Ball Park, riding a fourth-inning explosion that tied the franchise record of four home runs in a single frame. After losing 10 of their previous 14 games and managing only five hits while striking out 18 times in Tuesday's 4-1 defeat, Cincinnati's sudden offensive eruption felt less like random variance and more like the release of pent-up execution finally clicking against a premier opponent.

Sal Stewart, the 22-year-old rookie, anchored the assault with two opposite-field homers in the inning, giving him 19 for the season—second only to Hall of Famer Frank Robinson's 22 in a Reds rookie's first 91 games. Noelvi Marte, Edwin De La Cruz, and JJ Bleday each added solo shots to the four-homer barrage. De La Cruz is particularly noteworthy: in 13 games since returning from a three-week injury layoff, he'd hit only .220 with one homer. On Wednesday, he delivered a two-run blast, suggesting the recovery window is closing and his power stroke is rounding back into form. Bleday's contribution marked his first homer since June 15, ending a 19-game drought in which he'd hit just .133 with a .434 OPS. Stewart will join Burns at the All-Star Game on Tuesday in Philadelphia—the seventh Reds rookie to make the mid-season showcase and the first since Scott Williamson in 1999.

The narrative here matters for prop construction. Cincinnati sits 29th in batting average (.228), 23rd in both runs and OPS, and well back in the Wild Card race at 42-49. The Reds are a streaky, young lineup learning to execute against top-tier pitching. Wednesday's performance wasn't a sustainable baseline—it was a compressed release of the offensive potential that scouts see in players like Stewart and De La Cruz. The fact that it happened against Alan Rangel and Tanner Banks, not ace-caliber starters, suggests the Reds are more likely to generate home-run spikes against middle-of-the-rotation arms than to maintain elevated run-scoring rates against elite pitching.

For bettors, the prop angle hinges on Stewart's trajectory and the volatility of Reds team totals. Stewart's opposite-field mastery—on display again Wednesday, both homers hit the other way—is a durable skill set that will persist across the sample. At 22 years old with 19 homers in 91 games, he's tracking toward a 34-35 homer rookie season if usage and health hold. Individual Stewart props (HR, RBIs, total bases) carry elevated value when Cincinnati faces teams that don't shift aggressively; his willingness to take the ball to right field neutralizes alignment-heavy defenses. Over his next 10 games, focus on Stewart HR props at fair numbers if the book prices him at season-long pace rather than the higher power-spike trajectory his recent plate discipline suggests.

Reds team totals are trickier. A 4-homer, 11-run outburst against a Phillies team that hasn't yet established premium run-prevention suggests Cincinnati's ceiling is higher than the season-long .228 average indicates. But Wednesday was a one-inning compression of weeks of offensive development. Team totals at 4.5 or higher against teams ranked in the top 10 in ERA carry risk; unders at those numbers gain value because the Reds will revert to low-hit, high-strikeout baseball against ace-level opposition. The edge lasts as long as Cincinnati's pitching staff remains a liability—Burns issued six walks and allowed three runs in five innings Wednesday—which means volatile team totals are the real play, not directional confidence on overs or unders alone.