Hunter Greene guides Reds to tidy win over Cardinals

Hunter Greene allowed one run and four hits over seven innings to help the Cincinnati Reds to a 4-1 win against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals in the middle game of their three-game series on Tuesday night.

Greene (9-4) struck out eight and walked one in his seventh consecutive quality start.

Tony Santillan pitched a perfect eighth and Alexis Diaz pitched the ninth for his 24th save for the Reds, who have won three straight.

Ty France and Jeimer Candelario homered and TJ Friedl had two hits and scored a run for Cincinnati, which won the series opener 6-1 on Monday night.

Nolan Arenado homered for the Cardinals, who have dropped three in a row.

St. Louis starter Erick Fedde (8-6) surrendered four runs and six hits in six innings, striking out two and walking two in the two-hour game.

Cincinnati took an early lead with a two-out rally in the first inning.

Tyler Stephenson singled to left and Friedl walked. Spencer Steer then worked the count full before delivering a single up the middle that drove in Stephenson for a 1-0 lead.

France led off the second by hitting a two-strike cutter over the fence in right field for an opposite-field homer and a 2-0 lead.

Fedde had a relatively easy time over the next three innings, but got into trouble again in the sixth.

Friedl singled to center with one out and moved to second on a groundout. Candelario then pulled a cutter over the fence in right for a two-run homer and a 4-0 lead.

Greene gave up a two-out double to Willson Contreras in the first and then retired 12 in a row. He surrendered a two-out walk in the fifth to Lars Nootbaar, who moved to third on back-to-back wild pitches before striking out Nolan Gorman to end the inning.

Greene pitched around a leadoff double by Victor Scott II in the sixth, but Arenado tagged him for a home run deep to left on the first pitch of the seventh to cut it to 4-1.

It was the first home run allowed by Greene in his past five starts.

--Field Level Media