JJ Bleday, Reds ride power surge in rout of Nationals

JJ Bleday homered twice and drove in six runs to help the Cincinnati Reds salvage a win in the three-game series against the visiting Washington Nationals with a 15-1 rout on Thursday afternoon.

Matt McLain and Dane Myers also homered and Spencer Steer had two hits and scored three times.

Elly De La Cruz had two hits for his sixth straight multi-hit game and scored twice, and Jose Trevino, Ke'Bryan Hayes and McLain each had two RBIs for the Reds, who had lost 10 of 12.

Chase Burns (5-1) allowed two hits and struck out seven over six shutout innings in his fourth straight quality start. He lowered his ERA to 1.87.

Washington left-hander Foster Griffin (4-2) was coming off three straight quality starts, but he was tagged for nine runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked three.

Steer singled to start the first inning before McLain came up with two outs and homered just over the fence in straightaway center on the first pitch he saw for a 2-0 lead.

Cincinnati rallied again with two outs in the fourth inning.

Blake Dunn and McLain had back-to-back walks to load the bases. Trevino followed with a two-run single to center for 4-0 lead, and Hayes then blasted a two-run double to left to score two more runs.

Bleday came up in the fifth with two runners aboard and blasted a three-run shot to right-center field for a 9-0 lead.

Bleday came up again in the seventh and homered just over the wall in right to extend the lead to 11-0 and give him his third multi-homer game in the majors.

Burns surrendered his second base hit of the game in the sixth, a one-out double to Luis García Jr. He then walked CJ Abrams with two outs, but Myers made a diving catch in left-center to rob Jacob Young and end the inning.

The Nationals scored on a wild pitch in the eighth to cut it to 11-1.

Myers' three-run homer off position player Joey Wiemer highlighted the four-run eighth that made it 15-1.

--Field Level Media