Joey Votto and Aristides Aquino homered on consecutive pitches in the third inning and Wade Miley picked up a weary pitching staff as the Cincinnati Reds snapped a four-game skid with a 4-3 win over the visiting New York Mets on Tuesday.
Miley (8-4) scattered seven hits and two walks over 6 1/3 innings while allowing two runs — one earned — and matching a season high with eight strikeouts. Amir Garrett struck out two in the ninth after a leadoff walk and earned his seventh save.
Red-hot rookie Jonathan India connected for a solo homer and scored twice as the Reds won for the first time since the All-Star break. India has reached eight times over the first two games of the series, moving him into the top five in on-base percentage in the majors at .406.
Pete Alonso hit his 19th homer in the first inning, New York’s eighth long ball in two games, to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.
Mets spot starter Robert Stock then yielded the first leadoff homer of India’s career, a 432-foot blast off the batter’s eye in straightaway center to tie the game. Stock got out of the first, but that would be his last inning on the mound as he strained a hamstring running out a grounder to end the top of the second.
Stock was hoping to provide some length and relief after the Mets used seven pitchers Monday in a 15-11, 11-inning win. Instead, Stephen Nogosek was called upon after Stock left the mound in the second inning before throwing a pitch.
Nogosek (0-1) pitched a scoreless second before allowing a tape measure homer to Votto, his 12th of the year, with two outs in the third. On the next pitch, Nogosek hung a slider and Aquino lined a homer just above the wall in left-center for his sixth of the season and a 3-1 Cincinnati lead.
Miley, who has lasted at least six innings in all seven of his starts since June 12, issued his only two walks to Jonathan Villar and Dominic Smith to open the seventh. He struck out Brandon Nimmo and then left to a standing ovation from the Cincinnati crowd.
Brad Brach took over on the mound, and Alonso reached on an error by Votto at first base to load the bases. Brach escaped the jam by getting Jeff McNeil to ground into an inning-ending double play.
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–Field Level Media