Reds ride red-hot Burns to rare road win over Phillies
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PHILADELPHIA – The Reds have struggled through the month of May, looking for something to spark a turnaround.
Enter Chase Burns.
Burns continued his remarkable run, playing the role of stopper in a 4-1 win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, leading Cincinnati to a rare road victory.
In four starts this month, Burns is 3-0 with a 0.72 ERA, earning three of his team’s five wins since May 1.
The win was the Reds’ second in 12 road games this month, giving them a chance to win a series for only the second time this May.
Burns entered the game with a 1.87 ERA in nine starts this season, trailing only Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez in the National League. Aside from one bad start against the Angels, Burns had been brilliant in his other eight outings, allowing only six earned runs for a 1.13 ERA.
Having lost 13 of 17 games in May -- a swoon that dropped the Reds from first place in the National League Central to last -- the Reds needed Burns to provide more quality innings Tuesday night, taking the onus off of Cincinnati’s overworked and ineffective bullpen.
Burns answered the call, holding the red-hot Phillies to one run on three hits over six innings, striking out nine without issuing a walk. Not that anybody should have been surprised; Tuesday marked only the sixth time in 18 games this month in which a Reds starter went at least six innings, with Burns accounting for four of them.
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Burns’ lone blemish was a solo home run by Trea Turner in the third inning, but the 23-year-old right-hander was unfazed, retiring the next 10 batters in order -- six of them via strikeout.
The Reds answered back in the top of the fourth, loading the bases against Jesús Luzardo with nobody out. Dane Myers and JJ Bleday lifted a pair of sacrifice flies to give Cincinnati a lead, giving Burns all the support he needed.
The Reds tacked on two runs in the seventh, while the bullpen did the job over the final three innings, as Pierce Johnson, Sam Moll and Tony Santillan locked down the win with a scoreless inning apiece.