McCoy: Rookie Hinds makes history in second MLB game as Reds rout Rockies

And Hinds was just a large piece of explosives the Cincinnati Reds used to destroy the Colorado Rockies, 12-6, Tuesday night in Great American Ball Park.

The Reds sent four balls into the seats as Tyler Stephenson, Will Benson and Spencer Steer also left the premises.

The one Hinds hit, though, made the other three home runs resemble pop flies. After hitting one 449 feet on Monday, this time he hit one higher into the upper deck, 458 feet and invisible to the naked eye from home plate.

After the Cincinnati offense took a three-day paid leave of absence against the Detroit Tigers, it is doing what it is supposed to do against one of MLB’s worst teams.

During their 13-hit attack, 10 went for extra bases, a follow-up to their 6-0 win over the Rockies on Monday night.

In addition to his home run, Stephenson added two doubles, the first three extra-base hits in a game in his career.

He scored three times and, amazingly, every player in the lineup but one scored a run. And that was De La Cruz. Jonathan India was scratched just prior to the game with a knee contusion, so Stephenson was pushed up in the batting order from fifth to clean-up. And he cleaned up.

Of the Hinds two-game power clinic, manager David Bell said during his post-game media interview, “He’s contributing to wins and these are big games for us. I saw up on the scoreboard that maybe he had done something never done before, which makes sense because it feels like we haven’t seen that before.”

Nor has anybody.

Stephenson, overshadowed despite his homer and two doubles, said of Hinds, “It’s special. The power, the athletic ability is there and it’s special, the real deal. When he hits the ball, he surely hits it.”

After missing three starts with a blister on a pitching finger, Nick Lodolo started Tuesday’s game and struck out the side in the first inning.

Colorado starter Cal Quintrill also struck out the side in the first, but the Reds ripped into him for five runs in the second.

Stephenson started the inning by picking on a 3-and-0 pitch and drilling a home run, his third home run this season on a 3-and-0 pitch.

Edwin Rios walked and Noel Marte was hit by a pitch. Santiago Espinal singled for a run and Benson pulled one over the right field wall, a three-run blast.

Quantrill gave up a double to De La Cruz and Jeimer Candelario narrowly missed a third home run of the inning. It was ruled a home run, but replay-review revealed it just missed the foul/fair pole, inches to the right. Instead of 7-0, the Reds settled for 5-0.

And then the remnants of Hurricane Beryl interrupted play for 44 minutes. Lodolo had pitched 2 2/3 innings and retired all but one, a walk, while striking out three.

Bell decided to let Lodolo return after the 44-minute delay. It was a bad decision.

He gave up a double and hit a batter in the third. He retired the first wo in the fourth, then Brenton Doyle homered, Jacob Stallings doubled, Michael Toglia homered and Nolan Jones singled.

That was all for Lodolo and Nick Martinez gave up a run-scoring single and it was 5-4.

Fortunately for the Reds, the Rockies bullpen is closer to a pigpen and the Reds rocked the Rox.

They scored two in the fifth on Stephenson’s run-scoring double and Hinds’ triple into the right field corner for a 7-4 lead.

The Reds scored four in the seventh to put it away and it began with two outs and nobody on. It was the Hinds homer that started it and must have shaken pitcher Pete Lambert down to his toes.

Espinal followed with a single and Benson doubled as Espinal scored. Steer, batting leadoff in India’s place, lined the team’s fourth homer to put the Reds in front, 11-4.

While the Reds had 13 hits, the Rockies had 12, but Cincinnati’s bullpen crew of Nick Martinez, Lucas Simes, Justin Wilson, Fernando Cruz, Buck Farmer and Brent Suter pitched around all those hits.

While the Reds were 5 for 15 with runners in scoring position, the 32-60 Rockies were 1 for 10 and stranded 10 while losing in Great American Ball Park for the 12th in their last 13 appearnces.

“I was aggressive tonight, something I’ve tried to work on,” said Stephenson. “Just some mechanical stuff, make some good swings, hit the ball out front.

“I got some good pitches to hit and that’s the name of the game ... you’ve gotta hit the pitches you are supposed to hit,” he added.

And Hinds is showing how it’s done.