CLEVELAND -- The Reds opened their Ohio Cup rivalry series vs. the Guardians with a 7-6 victory on Friday at Progressive Field. It gave Cincinnati back-to-back wins and only their fourth win in 14 games in May.
After JJ Bleday led off with a leadoff double to right field, the Reds had the bases loaded and no outs in the second inning against Guardians starter Tanner Bibee. Matt McLain's walk forced home the game's first run and Tyler Stephenson followed with a sacrifice fly that gave Cincinnati a 2-0 lead.
In the fifth inning, Elly De La Cruz extended his hitting streak to eight games with an RBI double to the wall in right-center field that scored Ke'Bryan Hayes for a three-run lead.
Andrew Abbott continued a strong stretch of starts for Cincinnati while taking a shutout into the sixth inning. Abbott threw five-plus innings and gave up one run on four hits and three walks with two strikeouts.
The shutout and Abbott's career-high scoreless streak ended at 21 2/3 innings when Rhys Hoskins led off the Cleveland sixth inning with a home run to left field that cut the Reds' lead to 3-1.
Abbott departed but improved to 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA over his last four starts after he was 0-2 with a 6.59 ERA in his first six games this season.
Pierce Johnson took over from there and completed the rest of the inning without a blip. Beleaguered reliever Tony Santillan was given the seventh inning after being scored on in each of his last five appearances, but he worked a scoreless inning after allowing a two-out double.
Valuable Reds add-on runs came in the top of the eighth inning when Bleday opened with another double to right field and scored on Spencer Steer's RBI single to left field. There was one out when McLain hit Peyton Pallette's 0-2 pitch to left field for a two-run homer to left field that made it 6-1.
The larger lead nearly slipped away on the watch of Graham Ashcraft and Brock Burke in the bottom of the eighth. Ashcraft walked the bases loaded on 12 pitches before giving up Travis Bazzana's RBI single. Burke took over and got a strikeout, but then issued back-to-back walks to force home two more runs before José Ramírez’s sacrifice fly made it a one-run game.
The Reds' bullpen leads the Majors with 17 walks with the bases loaded this season.