Pete Crow-Armstong homers twice; Cubs rally to blast Reds

Pete Crow-Armstrong hit two home runs, including a grand slam to highlight a six-run seventh inning, and Seiya Suzuki went 3-for-5 with a home run, double and three RBIs as the visiting Chicago Cubs rallied from a 4-0 deficit to defeat the Cincinnati Reds, 13-6, in the opener of a three-game series on Friday night.

It was the third multi-homer game of the season for Crow-Armstrong, who also doubled and finished with six RBIs. It was his second six-RBI game in the span of just seven games.

Dansby Swanson also hit a two-run homer, Nico Hoerner went 3-for-5 with two doubles and two runs scored and Kyle Tucker added a two-run single for Chicago, which won its third straight game. Chris Flexen (2-0) picked up the win with 1 1/3 innings of hitless relief.

Spencer Steer went 3-for-5 with a double and an RBI, Austin Hays tripled and had two hits and TJ Friedl also doubled and added two hits for Cincinnati.

Tony Santillan (0-1) suffered the loss allowing three runs on three hits and a walk without retiring a batter in the seventh inning. Hunter Greene made his first start since suffering a groin injury in a May 7 start at Atlanta and allowed two runs on three hits over four innings. He walked two and struck out two.

Cincinnati opened the bottom of the first with five straight hits, including RBI singles by Hays and Steer, against Cubs starter Matthew Boyd en route to a 3-0 lead.

The Reds extended the margin to 4-0 in the third when Hays led off with a triple off the bottom of the wall in left-center and scored on a wild pitch.

Chicago cut their deficit to 4-2 in the fourth on Crow-Armstrong's two-run homer to right-center, driving in Suzuki, who had doubled.

Cincinnati got those runs back in the fifth on an RBI double by Tyler Stephenson who later came around to score on a single by Freidl.

But the Cubs plated six runs in the seventh, pounding out six hits and sending 10 batters to the plate in the process. Tucker had a two-run bases-loaded single to make it 6-4, and Suzuki followed with a single to load the bases again. Crow-Armstrong followed with his 14th homer of the season, a grand slam that curled into the right field foul pole and gave the visitors their first lead of the night.

Suzuki extended the lead to 11-6 in the eighth with a three-run homer to left and Swanson added a two-run blast in the ninth to finish the scoring.

--Field Level Media