Geno, Elly join exclusive Reds company with HRs in Washington

WASHINGTON -- After trailing early to the Nationals on Friday, the Reds responded in a manner that made it feel like they had the ingredients on the counter to cook up a comeback.

It was a bullpen game, but relievers mostly did well while the offense responded with three solo homers. As Carl Weathers would say on Arrested Development, "Baby, you've got a stew going."

Alas, not all recipes come together. Cincinnati's four-game winning streak was halted with a 5-3 loss at Nationals Park.

“I felt that way the whole game," manager Terry Francona said of a potential comeback effort. "And I know we didn’t do it, but that’s still a good feeling.”

Here are three things about this game.

The bullpen delivers innings, all of them

After the Reds moved up Andrew Abbott to Thursday's game vs. the A's to cover the loss of Hunter Greene to the injured list, they needed to fill Friday's series opener at Washington with a bullpen game.

Chase Petty started and after giving up a leadoff hit in the bottom of the first inning, seemed poised to get an inning-ending double play. Brady House sharply grounded to shortstop Elly De La Cruz, who booted it for an error. Then Daylen Lile slugged a 2-0 Petty changeup for a three-run homer to right field and a 3-0 Nationals lead.

"If things go the way they’re supposed to, he doesn’t face that guy and it’s a whole different game," Francona said.

Rookie Julian Garcia, who came in with a 2.18 ERA in his previous 16 appearances, followed Petty with 2 1/3 innings. Garcia struck out three of his first five batters, but the 3-3 tie was snapped in the fourth inning when Harry Ford hit a 2-1 pitch to left-center field for a two-run homer.

"I think he threw [39] pitches and gave up the home run late -- that’s one of those situations that when you can go shorter, they don’t do that," Francona said. "We didn’t have the choice and I felt bad for him because he’s been really good.”

Luis Mey followed Garcia with 2 2/3 scoreless innings with two hits and four strikeouts during his best performance of the season. Zach McCambley finished it off with 1 1/3 scoreless innings.

“Our bullpen did an outstanding job on a bullpen day for us," designated hitter Eugenio Suárez said. "They covered the whole game. We need our bullpen fresh, and they did a really good job today.”

Exclusive company for Suárez, De La Cruz

With one out in the top of the second inning as Cincinnati trailed, 3-0, Suárez hit an 0-1 fastball from Cade Cavalli to left field for a solo home run. It was No. 204 for Suárez as a member of the Reds. That moved him ahead of Eric Davis into sole possession of 10th all-time in franchise history.

“It’s a big honor for me to put my name on that list," said Suárez, who has 15 homers in 2026. "Eric Davis is a huge name on that list. I’m happy to be able to do that for this organization. I’m a lucky guy. I love to play for this organization and do my best on the field. It’s awesome.”

In the third inning after Matt McLain hit a one-out solo homer off Cavalli, De La Cruz made it back-to-back long balls to left field and evened the game with his 20th homer of the season. De La Cruz became the third player all time for the Reds to have 20-plus homers and 20-plus steals in three consecutive seasons. He has 21 steals in 2026. That joined him with Davis, who did it in five straight seasons from 1986-90 and Brandon Phillips, who also did it three seasons in a row from 2007-09.

While the solo homers were welcomed, the Reds didn't do much with runners on base. That included usual RBI machine rookie Sal Stewart, who grounded into two inning-ending double plays, including with the bases loaded in the seventh inning.

Rodríguez gets first hit, plays nice defense

In his third big league game since being called up Tuesday from Triple-A Louisville, Héctor Rodríguez picked up his first big league hit, a two-out double in the fourth inning.

Rodríguez started in center field for the first time after playing right field in his debut and being the designated hitter on Thursday. He was tested on a couple of plays, but tracked down Abimelec Ortiz's fly ball to the warning track in the first inning and made a long run and catch of a Dylan Crews drive to the track in the eighth.

"He did OK," Francona said. "That’s a big ask [to play center field]. I told him, ‘If you mess something up, I’ll take it, not you.’”