Supported by three home runs, ace Johnny Cueto worked a mostly smooth eight innings as the Reds handed the Brewers a 4-2 loss Tuesday to take the first two games of the three-game series. The Reds returned to .500 at 10-10 while the Brewers fell to 4-17.
Cueto gave up two earned runs and three hits without a walk while striking out six to improve to 2-2 with a 1.95 ERA in five starts. He matched the eight innings he threw in his previous start at Milwaukee. Closer Aroldis Chapman pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his fifth save.
“He was terrific,” Reds manager Bryan Price said of Cueto. “He got touched up for the two solo home runs and [Adam] Lind hit that opposite-field base hit. Other than that, he was just impeccable.”
Cincinnati took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning against Kyle Lohse when Joey Votto hit a 1-0 pitch to right-center field for a homer. Lohse retired nine of his next 10 batters, but ran into two-out trouble in the fourth inning. After a Jay Bruce single, Brandon Phillips blistered a 1-0 pitch for a two-run homer to straightaway center field. The next batter, Marlon Byrd, followed with a homer on a 1-2 pitch to make it a 4-0 game.
That was enough breathing room for Cueto, who did not allow a hit until Aramis Ramirez led off the fifth inning with a first-pitch homer to left field. Ryan Braun did likewise to begin the seventh when he sent Cueto’s first pitch into the right-field seats to cut Milwaukee’s deficit to two runs.
Lohse allowed four earned runs and seven hits over seven innings while striking out five and walking one. He has given up at least one homer in all five of his starts, and eight total this season.
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