Hunter Greene sparkles again, Reds blank Pirates

Hunter Greene threw seven shutout innings and retired the final 17 batters he faced, while Santiago Espinal went 2-for-4 and broke a scoreless tie to lead the Cincinnati Reds to a 4-0 win and a three-game sweep of the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.

Following up his near-complete game shutout on Monday night in San Francisco, Greene (2-1) ran his scoreless innings streak to 19 innings since allowing the lone run of the game and taking the 1-0 loss on April 2 against Texas. Greene struck out eight and walked one while allowing just two hits Sunday, lowering his ERA to 0.98 in four starts this season.

Greene finally earned a win over the Pirates. Entering the game, Greene had been 0-4 with a 3.00 ERA in seven career starts against the Pirates and Cincinnati had never won a Greene start against Pittsburgh.

Greene was able to work his way out of jams in the first two innings. Bryan Reynolds doubled with one out in the first before Oneil Cruz worked a walk. Endy Rodriguez flew out to right and Alexander Canario lined out softly to Elly De La Cruz to end the threat.

An inning later, Isiah Kiner-Falefa tripled with one out when Jake Fraley dove headfirst for a sinking liner in right. The ball got past Fraley and Kiner-Falefa wound up on third. Tsung-Che Cheng struck out and Henry Davis was robbed of an RBI when Espinal made a leaping grab of a line drive to end the second.

Greene retired the side in order in his final five innings before Ian Gibaut took over in the eighth.

Espinal broke the 0-0 tie in the third when he served a soft line drive to right-center to score Austin Wynns and TJ Friedl with the first two runs off Pittsburgh starter Carmen Mlodzinski (1-2). The right-hander was charged with four runs and five hits over 4 1/3 innings, striking out four and walking two.

The Reds added on in the fifth with an RBI double from Friedl and a run-scoring single by De La Cruz.

Cincinnati completed its first series sweep of Pittsburgh since Aug. 5-8, 2021, when they swept a four-game set. The Reds have won five of six to move back to .500 on the season while the Pirates have dropped four of five.

--Field Level Media