Reds Sweep Giants With 9-0 Win
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Johnny Cueto pitched a three-hitter, Joey Votto added a three-run homer and tied his career high with five RBIs and the Cincinnati Reds completed a three-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants with a 9-0 win on Sunday.
Todd Frazier hit his first career home run and Drew Stubbs had a career-high four hits as the Reds rebounded from being swept by the New York Mets in four games to post three consecutive wins for the first time since sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers June 13-15.
Cueto (7-4) missed the first month of the season with irritation in his right upper arm and needed 7 1-3 innings to qualify for the National League ERA lead. He went into the game with a 1.88 ERA and lowered it to 1.72 with his first shutout since beating Pittsburgh 9-0 with a one-hitter on May 11, 2010. The complete game was his third of the season, but he lost the other two. Cueto had one walk with six strikeouts while allowing just one baserunner past first base.
San Francisco left-hander Barry Zito was handed his third straight after a stretch in which he won three in a row as the Giants were swept for the fifth time this season and first since losing three straight at Oakland June 17-19.
For the second consecutive game, the Reds grabbed a first-inning lead. Stubbs, Edgar Renteria and Votto all singled to produce one run. After Zito's wild pitch, Brandon Phillips produced a sacrifice fly, and Jay Bruce singled up the middle for a 3-0 lead.
The Reds led 5-0 after the first inning on Saturday.
Frazier, in the ninth game of his career and eighth after being recalled from Triple-A Louisville on July 22 for the second time this season, hit a 1-1 pitch from Zito 368 feet over the left field fence for a 4-0 lead with one out in the fourth inning. The Reds made it 5-0 on Bruce's sacrifice fly in the fifth.
Zito (3-4) allowed eight hits and five runs with two walks and four strikeouts. He also threw a wild pitch.
The Reds broke it open in the seventh on Votto's 414-foot, three-run homer to center field on a full-count pitch from Guilleromo Mota.
The Reds wrapped up the scoring with Stubbs' double and Votto's RBI single in the eighth.
NOTES: San Francisco optioned rookie SS Brandon Crawford to Triple-A Fresno before the game to make room on the roster for newly acquired SS Orlando Cabrera. ... After their six-game road trip, the Giants return home for their second 10-game home stand of the season. After the first of their two 10-game home stands, the Reds leave for a six-game trip to Houston and Chicago. ... Phillips extended his hitting streak to 10 games (15 for 42, .357), the team's longest current streak. ... Carlos Beltran's seventh-inning single snapped a stretch of 11 consecutive hitless at-bats. Beltran is 2 for 17 in four games with San Francisco.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
