Barnhart belts homer, Reds win 4th straight
Tucker Barnhart hit a home run and Brian Goodwin prevented one with a leaping catch as the Cincinnati Reds extended their winning streak to a season-high four games with a 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night at Great American Ball Park.
Michael Lorenzen (2-1) looked sharp in a spot start. Lorenzen made his first 2020 start. He allowed one run and four hits in five innings with no walks and six strikeouts. Amir Garrett pitched the ninth for his first save.
Pittsburgh’s only run came in the fourth on Ke’bryan Hayes’ double and Colin Moran’s single.
The Reds took a 3-0 lead in the first. Shogo Akiyama and Nick Castellanos opened the inning with singles and Joey Votto walked. Jesse Winker forced Votto at the plate with a chopper to Musgrove, but the right-hander hit Mike Moustakas on the left foot with a pitch to force in a run. Votto scored on Goodwin’s sacrifice fly. Freddy Galvis followed with an RBI single.
Musgrove (0-5) gave up six hits, four runs and one walk. He retired 11 of the last 12 batters he faced.
The third-place Reds went into the game higher than fourth in the National League Central for the first time since Aug. 23. They were 1½ games behind second-place St. Louis and ninth in the overall National League standings, one game behind the Giants for the final postseason spot.
CUBS 6, INDIANS 5: Willson Contreras and Cameron Maybin were plunked by consecutive pitches from Cleveland reliever Nick Wittgren in the ninth inning, forcing home the winning run for host Chicago.
After Cleveland tied it at 5 with two runs in the top of the ninth, left-hander Oliver Perez (1-1) allowed a one-out walk to Kris Bryant in the bottom of the inning. Anthony Rizzo followed with a single that advanced Bryant to third. Wittgren drilled Contreras with a 1-and-1 fastball, then hit Maybin with a bases-loaded change-up.
Trailing 5-3 in the ninth, Josh Naylor drew a leadoff walk from Cubs closer Jeremy Jeffress. One out later, Francisco Lindor hit a two-run shot to left to tie the score. It was his eighth of the season and the second blown save for Jeffress (4-1).
Javier Baez also homered for the Cubs, who increased their lead to five games in the NL Central.
Rookie Tyler Naquin was 4 for 4 for the Indians, who lost their seasonhigh seventh straight game.
Giants-mariners series moved to San Francisco due to air quality
The two-game series between the San Francisco Giants and Mariners in Seattle that was scheduled to start Tuesday night was postponed because of poor air quality caused by the West Coast wildfires.
The series was moved to Wednesday and Thursday at Oracle Park in San Francisco.