Cincinnati Reds Beat Nationals After Late HR by Eugenio Suarez

W: Manny Parra (1-1)

L: Casey Janssen (0-2)

SV: Aroldis Chapman (17)

For the fourth time in four games this season, the Cincinnati Reds beat the NL East-leading Washington Nationals, 3-2.

Eugenio Suarez led the way on offense, going 3-for-4 and knocking in two of the Reds’ three runs. His first big hit came in the sixth inning when he followed Marlon Byrd‘s double with a run-scoring single to give the Reds a 2-1 lead. His biggest hit of the night came in the eighth, hitting a go-ahead home run to left field that barely snuck over the wall and inside the foul pole to put the Reds ahead, 3-2.

More from Blog Red Machine

• Reds: 3 players who may lose their roster spot when Jesse Winker returns
• Reds: Joe Boyle has an absurd strikeout-rate after punching out 10 batters
• Reds vs. Pirates: Pitching preview, prediction, and more
• Reds appropriately designate reliever Brad Brach for assignment
• Reds: 3 reasons why Jonathan India will win NL Rookie of the Year

While the 23-year-old has struggled to replace Zack Cozart in the field, you can’t say enough about his performance at the plate. With tonight’s effort, Suarez is now hitting .329/.372/.493 with three homers and 13 runs batted in.

On the mound, Anthony DeSclafani was sound, although his outing only lasted through 5.2 innings and 102 pitches.

After helping himself with an RBI double in the second, he allowed the Nationals to tie the game at one on a wild pitch in the third.

The right-hander fired two more scoreless innings, but hit a wall in the sixth as his pitch count neared 100. He retired the first two hitters of the inning, but Danny Espinosa took him deep to tie the game at two. Following a single and a walk, DeSclafani was done, having allowed two runs on five hits and four walks with six strikeouts.

With DeSclafani out of the game, the bullpen was nearly perfect over the remaining 3.1 innings. Ryan Mattheus retired the only hitter he faced, Manny Parra and J.J. Hoover both threw 1-2-3 innings, and Aroldis Chapman worked around a walk and a passed ball in the ninth to pick up his 17th save of the season.

Other Notes:

• Byrd’s double in the sixth was initially ruled a home run, but the call was overturned after a replay review. The double extended Byrd’s hitting streak to 11 games.
• Joey Votto broke out of his recent funk a bit with two hits in five at-bats.
• Every hitter in the Reds lineup except for Brayan Pena and Billy Hamilton had a hit tonight.

Up Next: We’ll see a juicy pitching matchup in game two as Johnny Cueto faces off against Max Scherzer. First pitch will again be at 7:05 p.m. EST.

Next: Aroldis Chapman named to NL All-Star team