Nursing Zack:

Eugenio CINCINNATI — Suarez’s batting average isn’t really that much to be proud of, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been an effective hitter this season for the Cincinnati Reds.

Suarez, who’s spent most of the season batting in the middle of manager Bryan Price’s lineups, made his first appearance in the No. 2 slot in Thursday’s series finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He and the Reds originally were supposed to be facing right-hander Taijuan Walker, but Walker was placed on paternity leave and left-hander Patrick Corbin made the start. Price chose to keep the same lineup.

“We thought the matchup and the pitch usage with Walker played well,” Price said about Suarez batting second. “He’s been at .350- .360 on-base percentage, so we thought that would be a good spot for him leading into ( Joey) Votto and (Adam) Duvall and Scooter (Gennett) and (Devin) Mesoraco and (Scott) Schebler. He’s comfortable there.”

Suarez, who batted .248 with 21 home runs, 70 RBIs and a .317 on-base percentage over 159 games with the Reds last season, went into Thursday’s game hitting .252 with a .356 on-base percentage, but he was on pace to draw 79 walks — a vast improvement over his 51 in 2016 — while striking out 152 times, down a bit from last season’s 155. He also was on pace to finish with 22 home runs and 81 RBIs.

He picked up that pace Thursday with two home runs and a walk.

“I think you’re seeing the evolution of a good, young hitter,” Price said of his regu- lar third baseman, 26. . “He’s not chasing hits. Instead, he’s chasing good pitches to hit. He’s trusting in his abil- ity to hit with two strikes, and that’s putting him in better counts. His on-base percentage is a big part of the reason.”

Suarez batted in what normally is shortstop Zack Cozart’s slot, but the All-Star starter was getting a planned day off after spending most of the sec- ond half of June on the disabled list with a strained right quad.

“Coming out of the break, we had two scheduled days

Price said. “(Thursday) is the second. After this, we’ll play it by ear. He knows how to deal with what he’s playing with. He’s got a pretty good sense on how to handle it.”

Price kept Cozart on sched- ule despite the recent games put together by the veteran. Cozart had fallen a triple short of the cycle in each of Cincinnati’s last two games while going 7 for 10 with two doubles, two home runs and three RBIs. His ground-rule double to deep right-center field with nobody out and Billy Hamilton on first base in the 11th inning Wednesday prompted an intentional walk of Joey Votto, setting up Adam Duvall’s walk-off single for a 4-3 win.

Price still wasn’t ready to identify who would start Saturday in place of right-hander Scott Feld- man, who went on the disabled list Tuesday with right knee inflammation.

R ight-h a nder Asher Wojciechowski (1-1), who went into Thursday’s game with four starts among his nine appearances this season for Cincinnati, remains a candidate, Price said. Wojciech- owski allowed two hits and one run over a career-high five relief innings Monday, which helped save the bullpen and stretched him out for a possible start.

The last

Mystery man: Fond memory:

time Tucker Barnhart faced Miami Marlins right-hander Jose Urena, the Reds catcher capped a five-run first inning with his only career grand slam, leading Cincinnati to a 6-3 win last Aug. 16 at Great American Ball Park.

Urena (7-4) is Miami’s scheduled starter in today’s opener of a three-game series that completes Cincinnati’s 10-game homestand. Righthander Homer Bailey is the Reds’ scheduled starter. Bailey (2-3) comes off a start Sunday against Washington in which he allowed eight hits and eight runs, including two Daniel Murphy home runs, while not recording an out in the fifth inning.

Bailey, who will be mak- ing his sixth start since com- ing off the disabled list, is 2-1 in eight career starts against the Marlins, who have lost five of their past six. one run while pitching into the eighth inning as the Diamondbacks earned their second win in a three-game series against the Reds with a 12-2 rout.

Gregor Blanco tripled and homered and Ketel Marte also homered for the D-backs, who lost a threegame series to the Reds in Arizona right before the AllStar break.

Eugenio Suarez logged his third career multihomer game and second this season for the Reds, who went 3-0-1 in their past four series before the All-Star break. They dropped to 1-6 on their 10-game homestand. They have allowed opponents to reach double figures in runs in four of those games, just another in what to Price is a litany of examples of what ails his sinking team.

“The problem is clear,” the former Cincinnati pitching coach said. “When we give six or fewer runs, our winning percentage is over .600 (39-25, .609). Unfortunately, we’ve given up double figures in runs in four of these games. That’s the constant thing. We need to pitch better. It’s a worn-out record. ”

Corbin (7-9), 0-3 over his previous five starts, including a 2-1 loss to the Reds in Arizona on July 9, allowed seven hits and one run in a season-high 7⅓ innings — the longest he’d lasted since 2013. He struck out six and walked one.

The D-backs needed just 11 Luis Castillo pitches to jump out to a 3-0 lead. With two runners on, Lamb hit an 0-1 pitch by the rookie righthander off the bottom of the center field batter’s eye for his 21st homer.

Castillo fixed a mechani- cal problem and rebounded to retire 12 of the next 13 D-back batters.

“He has a tendency to open up his front side,” Price said. “He has to get focused on staying in line with the plate. (Pitching coach) Mack ( Jenkins) had a good talk with him. After the first three hit- ters, he did a nice job. We had to have it. He didn’t pitch up to the best of his ability, but he gave us what we had to have with the state of our bullpen.”

“I think I was working too fast, and that’s why my front shoulder was opening up,” said Castillo, who grounded a single up the middle in the third for his first career hit. “After that, everything got back to normal. After the first inning, I got back to normal again.”

Lamb added a three-run homer off of Ariel Hernandez in Arizona’s six-run ninth.

After Suarez led off the fourth with a homer, the Reds loaded the bases with nobody out on singles by Joey Votto, Adam Duvall and Scooter Gennett, whose line-hugger to Lamb at third base originally was ruled a groundout before being overturned on a video review.

Corbin bounced back to get Devin Mesoraco on a 3-1 pop-up, strike out Scott Schebler and end the threat on Jose Peraza’s pop-up

“We had a good matchup with Devin and Corbin and he got into a good count, but he couldn’t square it up,” Price said. “That was only one inning, but it was a big moment. We need to put together more of those opportunities. That was the one chance we had to either knock Corbin out of the game or put up some big numbers.