Elly De La Cruz and JJ Bleday homered, Hunter Greene tossed seven strong innings and the Cincinnati Reds opened a three-game series against the visiting Chicago Cubs with a 4-0 win on Friday.
De La Cruz hit a solo homer and tripled for Cincinnati, which out-hit the Cubs 13-4 and won for just the fourth time in its last 12 games. Bleday slugged a two-run homer and Spencer Steer had three hits.
Greene (1-1) yielded three hits and struck out 12 batters with one walk in his second start back from elbow surgery in March. He threw 68 of his 93 pitches for strikes.
Brock Burke and Emilio Pagan each pitched a scoreless inning to help Cincinnati complete its sixth shutout of the season.
Seiya Suzuki had two hits for Chicago, which struck out 16 times and was blanked for the ninth time this season.
De La Cruz ended Cincinnati’s 15-inning scoreless drought with a leadoff homer in the fifth inning against Shota Imanaga (5-8). The 400-foot liner was his 15th homer of the season.
Greene allowed just two hits through an efficient first six innings. The Cubs put two runners on with one out in the seventh before Nico Hoerner lined out and Michael Conforto struck out.
Imanaga allowed one run on seven hits over five innings while throwing a season-high 102 pitches. He walked one and struck out five.
The Reds were held scoreless in the sixth against Trent Thornton before tacking on three runs in the seventh.
Jake Woodford made his Cubs debut to start the seventh and allowed De La Cruz’s one-out triple. De La Cruz scored on Sal Stewart’s sacrifice fly and Steer singled in front of Bleday, who homered to right field.
Bleday’s 417-foot blast was his 15th homer of the season.
Steer made his first career start in center field for Cincinnati, which placed Matt McLain on the 10-day injured list with a left calf strain prior to the game. Reds third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes was activated from the injured list and went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
