Eugenio Suarez lifts Cincinnati Reds to extra-inning win over Astros

The Cincinnati Reds opened their series in Houston with an extra-inning win.

On Wednesday, the Reds scored two runs in extra innings only to see the bullpen cough up the lead and the game in the bottom of the inning.

Their fortune was better on Friday. Although Tony Cingrani made it interesting in the bottom of the 11th, the Reds came away with a 4-2 win against the Houston Astros.

Suarez breaks slump

After notching just five hits and striking out 23 times in his previous 43 at-bats, Eugenio Suarez needed something to turn his luck around. That came in the top of the 11th inning. The Reds’ third baseman followed an Adam Duvall single with a double off the Crawford Boxes in left field, scoring Duvall from first base. Suarez would eventually come around to score on a suicide squeeze bunt by Ramon Cabrera to give the Reds an insurance run.

Solid but inefficient start

John Lamb certainly bounced back from a poor showing in his prior start, tying a career high with eight strikeouts and allowing only one run on three hits. With Lamb’s strikeouts way down in 2016, the Reds have to be encouraged by the outing. The only downside of the southpaw’s effort was that he could only able to make it through 5 1/3 innings, as walked four and elevated his pitch count to 108, exiting the game with the bases loaded in the sixth inning.

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Bullpen holds strong

Usually when the Reds’ relief corps is tasked with throwing 5 2/3 innings, it spells trouble, but the group held up nicely.

J.C. Ramirez followed up his two-inning, six-strikeout performance on Wednesday by throwing 1 1/3 scoreless frames on Friday, though he did allow an inherited runner to score. J.J. Hoover continued throwing the ball well since his return from Triple-A, working around two walks and a hit to throw two shutout innings with three strikeouts. To close out the game, Cingrani gave up a hit and a walk, but was able to recover for his eighth save of the year.

The only hiccup from the ‘pen came from Blake Wood, who allowed his first home run of the year, a game-tying shot to Carlos Correa in the eighth inning.

Notes:

• Billy Hamilton returned from the concussion disabled list and picked up right where he left off, going 2-for-4 and making several nice plays in the spacious Minute Maid Park outfield.
• Every hitter in the Reds’ lineup had a hit except for Brandon Phillips.
• Reds fans will see a key piece of the future for the first time on Saturday, as No. 3 prospect Cody Reed will make his big-league debut in Saturday’s game. First pitch is at 4:10 p.m.