CINCINNATI – Jay Bruce's fourth home run in four games lifted the Cincinnati Reds to a 6-5 comeback win over the Houston Astros on Sunday.
Bruce hit reliever Fernando Rodriguez's (0-3) first pitch 381 feet into the right field seats for his seventh homer of the season. Bruce has hit home runs in a career-high four consecutive games, one short of tying Cincinnati's club record.
Logan Ondrusek (1-0) pitched a perfect eighth to get the win. Sean Marshall earned his fifth save in six tries.
Houston starter Jordan Lyles was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City before the game. He lasted six innings, allowing four hits and three runs with three walks and four strikeouts.
The 10 hits allowed by Reds starter Mat Latos matched the career high he set last June 21 at Boston while with San Diego. Latos allowed no walks and struck out four while giving up five runs in 6 1-3 innings.
Houston's Jordan Schafer singled in the second to extend to his streak of consecutive games reaching base at least once to open the season to 22, the longest by an Astro since Ricky Gutierrez put together a 23-game streak in 1998. The club record is Denis Menke's 25 in 1969.
Houston jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Jose Altuve's double and Jed Lowrie's single with one out in the first inning. The Astros made it 2-0 in the second on Chris Johnson's one-out double, Jason Castro's single and Lyles's suicide-squeeze sacrifice bunt.
Lyles didn't allow a hit in his first run through the Reds lineup, but Zack Cozart reached him for a double to left with one out in the fourth and Joey Votto slammed the next pitch 438 feet over the center field fence for his second home run of the season and first since April 7 during an 8-3 loss to Miami.
The Astros regained their two-run lead in the fifth on Altuve's two-out single and Lowrie's 378-foot home run into the right field seats, his second of the season and the road trip.
The Reds cut the deficit to 4-3 on Ryan Hanigan's infield single, Latos's sacrifice and Cozart's two-out double in the fifth, but Matt Downs countered with a 362-foot, opposite-field liner into the right field seats with one out in the sixth, his first home runs since last Sept. 26 against St. Louis.
The Reds tied the game in the seventh singles by Hanigan and Chris Heisey as a pinch-hitter and Votto's two-out double up the right-field line.
Notes: Infielder Brian Bixler was optioned to Oklahoma City to make room on the roster for Lyles. Bixler had just been recalled from the Redhawks on Friday. He's batted .143 in six games over two stints this season with the Astros. ... Votto's homer was his 117th as a first baseman, tying Sean Casey for fourth in career homers by Cincinnati first baseman. Lee May is third with 139, behind Tony Perez's 141 and Ted Kluszewski's 249. ... Hanigan extended his hitting streak to eight games, matching the career high he set in 2009. ... Schafer was ejected by second-base umpire Marvin Hudson after arguing about being caught stealing to end the second inning. Brian Bogusevic replaced Schafer in the lineup.
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