Bruce homers, Leake sparkles in 4-1 victory
Visiting Reds send struggling Astros to seventh straight defeat.
Jay Bruce homered HOUSTON — and drove in two runs to back a solid performance by Mike Leake and the Cincinnati Reds beat the sliding Houston Astros 4-1 on Friday night.
Leake (2-5) had a seasonhigh seven strikeouts in seven innings, yielding one run and four hits. Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in the ninth for his fourth save.
Houston has dropped seven straight in its longest skid since it lost seven in a row last August.
Joey Votto hit a two-out single in the first and scored on Brandon Phillips’ double off the wall in center, putting Cincinnati up 1-0. Bruce then singled in Phillips.
Votto added another runscoring single in the third.
Houston starter J.A. Happ (4-5) allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings. He struck out seven and walked two.
Bruce connected against Wesley Wright with two out in the ninth, hitting a drive to right for his 12th homer.
Leake retired 11 of 12 batters before Jose Altuve and Jed Lowrie hit consecutive singles to start Houston’s sixth inning. Carlos Lee grounded into a double play that allowed Altuve to score.
Jordan Schafer singled in the eighth, but was out at second when Altuve bounced into a force play. Lowrie walked before Lee grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Happ settled down after Votto’s run-scoring single in the third, and Phillips grounded into a double play to end that inning. He allowed a single COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS —
Michael Wacha will likely get a call in the first round from a major league team during Monday’s amateur draft. The Texas A&M right-hander is projected to be selected in the middle of the first round, and he showed why on Friday night.
Stifled by Wacha for 7 ⅓ innings, Dayton was unable to pick up a two-out hit and lost 4-1 to the host Aggies in front of 4,585 in the first round of the NCAA baseball tournament.
Wacha departed after allowing no runs on five hits with three walks and nine strikeouts. Estevan Uriegas relieved in the eighth and allowed an unearned run. Kyle Martin picked up the save.
“The difference of the game is we keep a quality at-bat chart and we were at 35 percent,” Dayton coach Tony Vittorio said. “We need to be around 55 percent at the chart to win a game. Hats off to them and their pitching.”
The No. 4 seed Flyers (31-29) will face No. 2 seed TCU (36-20) at 1:35 p.m. today. The top-seeded Aggies (43-16) play No. 3 seed Mississippi (36-24) tonight.
A leadoff double by Tyler Naquin in the first, followed by two consecutive singles, with Jacob House driving in Naquin, gave the Aggies the early 1-0 lead after the first inning.
A&M added another run in the third on a bases-loaded walk. The top of the order for the Aggies produced another run in the fourth to make it 3-0. It became 4-0 in the seventh as the Aggies took advantage of two throwing errors.
Dayton cut the lead to 4-1 in the eighth after C.J. Gillman got in scoring position with a one-out double.
A.J. Ryan followed with a ball hit up the middle that the second baseman mishandled and Gillman rounded third and beat the throw to the plate.
He slid head-first and his face met the catcher’s shin guard, which opened up a laceration that required stitches after the game. It’s doubtful Gillman will play in today’s game.
Said Vittorio, “That play at the plate with C.J. just exemplifies what our team is all about.”
Dayton pitcher Mike Hauschild tossed seven innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on nine hits with four walks and five strikeouts.