Reds beat Giants 4-2 to halt 7-game skid
SAN FRANCISCO -- Rookie right-hander Graham Ashcraft bounced back from two poor starts, pitching a career-high eight innings to help the Cincinnati Reds stop their seven-game losing streak Friday night with a 4-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants.
Nick Senzel drove in two runs and Mike Moustakas scored twice to pace the Cincinnati offense.
Ashcraft (4-1) faltered only in the fourth inning, when Evan Longoria belted a two-out homer, and in the eighth — when Mike Yastrzemski lashed an RBI single. That followed a double-play comebacker Ashcraft induced from Tommy La Stella to dampen a potential Giants rally.
Hunter Strickland worked the ninth against his former team for his third save.
Ashcraft permitted six hits and walked none while striking out eight. He gave up 10 runs and 17 hits over 9 2/3 innings in his previous two starts.
Cincinnati opened the scoring with two runs in the second off starter Alex Cobb (3-3). Kyle Farmer reached on an infield single and scored on Moustakas' double. Senzel also doubled to knock in Moustakas.
Senzel and Jonathan India executed a double steal to set up a run-scoring groundout by Donovan Solano in the fifth. That was the final run charged to Cobb, who went 4 1/3 innings. He allowed three runs, two earned, and five hits while walking one and striking out four.
Moustakas doubled again in the sixth off left-hander Jake McGee and came home on Senzel's single.
