Travis Wood wins fourth in a row for the Cincinnati Reds
The last time the Cincinnati Reds finished the season with a winning record was the 2000 season when they were 85-77 and were the division runner-up. Thursday night they continued their quest to win the division for the first time since 1995 with a 9-5 over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Travis Wood only threw 78 pitches working one out into the seventh innings before turning the game over to relief pitcher Logan Ondrusek. He ended up only giving up four hits including one home run, two walks, and one earned run while striking out six to get the win, his fourth on the season.
“Everything was feeling pretty good,” Wood said. “We’re playing well right now. Three here, we’ve got tough games in L.A. coming up, so hopefully we can carry it over and just keep moving on with it.”
A pair of home runs by the Reds in the fourth inning opened the scoring up. Catcher Ramon Hernandez hit a three-run home run over the left-center field fence to give the Reds a 3-0 lead. Jay Bruce hit his second home run of the month after going the month of July without hitting one in the fourth inning to stretch the lead to 4-0.
Cincinnati padded the lead with a five run explosion in the eighth inning to make the score 9-1 before the Reds’ bullpen and a late rally by the Diamondbacks made the game interesting. Bill Bray and Jordan Smith combined to get three outs, but not before giving up four hits including one home run for four runs to allow Arizona to close the lead to 9-5. Nick Masset pitched a scoreless ninth inning to preserve the win for the Reds.
The win gave Cincinnati the sweep over the three game series with Arizona, and sixth in a row for the Reds. Their record improved to 70-51 on the season. Arizona fell to 47-75 and have the third worse record in the league next to the Baltimore Orioles (43-79) and the Pittsburgh Pirates (40-81).
Cincinnati travels to Los Angeles to start a three game series with the Dodgers on Friday. The Dodgers are fighting to keep their slim post-season hopes alive in the NL West while the Reds will look to add to their three and a half game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central.
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