Terry Francona and Others React to Reds Series Opening Win Over Royals

The Cincinnati Reds beat the Kansas City Royals 7-4 on Monday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.

The Reds used a 14-hit day from their offense to score early and often on Monday, led by Tyler Stephenson's three-hit day, including his second home run of the season.

Stephenson feels like he's getting more comfortable at the plate.

"Yeah, it's kind of been a whirlwind of trying to get comfortable," Stephenson said. "You can do all you want, but until you get up here and get the reps, I am probably at 50-60 at bats, and to miss the time, it's a lot. You're just playing catch up."

Nine different Reds hitters recorded a hit on Monday and Garrett Hampson, Santiago Espinal, TJ Friedl, and Stephenson all had multi-hit games.

Reds manager Terry Francona is very encouraged with how the offense has played lately.

"Very encouraging," Francona said. "Things usually even out. Sometimes you have to pick up your pitchers and sometimes they have to pick you up."

Nick Martinez recorded his sixth straight quality start, throwing seven innings of three-run baseball. He allowed six hits and did not walk a batter.

"I try to be efficient every time," Nick Martinez said. "Just pounding the zone. The conditions helped me out. It was uncomfortable for everyone out there. I was just trying to pound the zone."

Francona couldn't say enough positive things about the right-hander after the game.

"I thought Nick Martinez was outstanding," Francona continued. "He made one bad pitch to Salvador Perez, but other than that, he was really good."

The Reds will try to get back to .500 on Tuesday when they face the Royals in game two of the series at 7:40 ET.

You can watch Francona, Martinez, and Stephenson's postgame interviews below: