Aristides Aquino lined a key three-run double and Mike Minor tossed a season-high seven innings to lead the visiting Cincinnati Reds past the Washington Nationals 7-3 Friday night.
Minor (3-10) earned his second straight win after eight consecutive losses, allowing two runs on six hits and striking out seven without a walk.
The Reds snapped a four-game skid and managed to spoil the major league debut of Washington’s top pitching prospect, Cade Cavalli (0-1), hanging the loss on the 22nd overall pick in the 2020 MLB draft. Cavalli was tagged with seven runs on six hits over 4 1/3 innings, striking out six and walking two.
Cavalli was inconsistent with his command, hitting three Cincinnati batters. With one out in the first, he hit Jonathan India on the back of his left arm. India was off Thursday with lingering left shin soreness from being hit by a pitch in the Field of Dreams game Aug. 11.
India, who scored three runs and reached base four times, came around to score his first run when Donovan Solano singled to shortstop CJ Abrams, whose errant throw got away from first baseman Luke Voit. TJ Friedl’s double to right field scored Solano for a 2-0 Cincinnati lead.
The Reds added two more in the third inning when India extended his hitting streak to a career-high nine games with a single to left. Kyle Farmer doubled and Solano followed with a two-run double to make it 4-0.
Minor yielded his first run in the third when Ildemaro Vargas doubled and Luis Garcia singled him home in his first game back from the injured list.
With Erasmo Ramirez replacing Cavalli with the bases loaded in the fifth, Aquino lined a double to the wall in left to make it 7-1 Reds. Aquino had been 4-for-17 in his first five appearances on Cincinnati’s current road trip.
Minor allowed a one-out, opposite field homer to right to Voit in the sixth, Voit’s 17th of the season.
The Nationals threatened in the eighth against reliever Hunter Strickland, who allowed a leadoff walk to Lane Thomas and let him score on a Joey Meneses single. But with runners at first and third, Strickland induced an inning-ending double play by Nelson Cruz.
–Field Level Media
