CINCINNATI – Chris Heisey gave Cincinnati the lead with his first home run of the season, and four relievers made it stand up as the Reds overcame a poor start by Mike Leake for a 10-3 win over the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night.
Devin Mesoraco and Ryan Ludwick also homered as the Reds picked up their seventh win in eight games.
Rookie J.J. Hoover (1-0), the first Cincinnati reliever, pitched 1 1-3 shutout innings for his first career win. Sam LeCure followed with two innings before Logan Ondrusek and Sean Marshall each added one after Leake, 1-0 with a 1.29 earned-run average over his previous two starts, lasted just 3 2-3 innings. He allowed nine hits and three runs.
Colorado's Jeremy Guthrie (2-3) allowed a season-high 10 hits and tied his season worst by giving up six runs in five innings.
Four of the first five Colorado batters Leake faced got hits, but the Rockies managed just one run. Marco Scutaro led off the game with a triple off the left-field wall on the third pitch and Tyler Colvin followed with an RBI single. Carlos Gonzalez hit into a double play, helping the Reds avoid more damage.
The Reds took a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the first, which started with Zack Cozart reaching on third baseman Jordan Pacheco's two-base error. Two outs later, Brandon Phillips doubled down the left-field line to drive in Cozart, Jay Bruce walked and Heisey hit an 0-1 pitch 367 feet into the stands in left for his first home run since last September.
Colorado knocked Leake out of the game with a two-run fourth that started with doubles by Pacheco and Nieves on back-to-back pitches to start the inning and Colvin's two-out RBI single.
Mesoraco led off Cincinnati's fourth with his third homer of the season and second in his last two games, a 406-foot blast to left field on a 3-2 pitch. Mesoraco hit a go-ahead grand-slam in Cincinnati's 6-3 win over Atlanta on Thursday.
The Reds broke the game open with a four-run seventh, three on pinch-hitter Ludwick's 421-foot, three-run shot into Cincinnati's bullpen in left-center field on a 1-1 pitch from Matt Reynolds. The homer was Ludwick's fifth of the season, and fifth of his career as a pinch-hitter.
NOTES: Pacheco extended his career-high hitting streak to 11 games (16 for 44, .364) with a second-inning single. ... Rockies LHP Jorge De La Rosa was scheduled to make the first start of his second rehab assignment Sunday for Triple-A Colorado Springs at Fresno. De La Rosa underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left elbow last season. ... Reds LHP Aroldis Chapman's 20 appearances without an earned run to begin a season are a franchise record, surpassing the record of 18 set by John Hudek in 1998, according to Elias Sports Bureau in stats distributed by the team. ... OF Michael Cuddyer returned to Colorado's lineup after being scratched from Friday's with a stiff neck. ... Reds RHP Mat Latos seeks his second win of Cincinnati's homestand in Sunday's series finale. He'll be opposed by 49-year-old Colorado left-hander Jamie Moyer.
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