Reds rally to comb Astros for eighth straight win

HOUSTON — No matter how Sunday’s sequence finale turned out vs. the Astros, the Reds’ nine-game, three-city highway journey by St. Louis, Kansas City and Houston was already an unqualified success. Anything extra could be gravy.

And who would not like gravy? The Reds clearly do, as they took a 9-7 victory in 10 innings to earn a three-game sequence sweep from Houston, the defending World Series champions, at Minute Maid Park. In the highest of the tenth inning in opposition to Seth Martinez, TJ Friedl dropped a sacrifice bunt to 3rd base and reached on a throwing error by Alex Bregman that allowed Nick Senzel to attain the go-ahead run from second base.

With one out, Elly De La Cruz labored a nine-pitch at-bat vs. Martinez earlier than lining an RBI single to proper area. Jake Fraley‘s RBI groundout offered a three-run cushion.

The victory prolonged the Reds’ profitable streak to eight video games to complete the highway journey 8-1, whereas profitable 11 of their final 13 video games as they improved to 37-35.

It was a 5-5 recreation within the eighth inning when Jonathan India drove reliever Bryan Abreu’s 3-1 pitch the alternative approach for a solo dwelling run to proper area – tying him for the crew lead with 10 homers. With nearer Alexis Díaz unavailable for the second recreation in a row, Ian Gibaut was summoned to shut however gave up the tying run to pressure extras.

Cincinnati performed catch-up a lot of the day with deficits of 2-0 after one inning and 5-2 by the fourth. That modified within the prime of the sixth inning in opposition to Astros starter Ronel Blanco. Matt McLain led off with a single to left area and superior on a handed ball. With one out, De La Cruz grounded behind first base and beat the throw with a head-first slide. 

Fraley, who hit a house run within the prime of the second inning off Blanco, adopted with an RBI single to proper area earlier than being thrown out making an attempt to advance to second base. 

On the subsequent pitch, Spencer Steer slugged a game-tying two-run homer to left area – additionally his tenth of the season.