Brandon Williamson pitched 6 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball, and hometown hero Sal Stewart stroked an RBI single as the Cincinnati Reds defeated the host Miami Marlins 2-0 on Monday night.
Cincinnati, which has won four straight games, also got a home run from Tyler Stephenson.
Williamson (1-1) lowered his ERA from 11.57 to 4.76 as he allowed just three hits and one walk.
Stewart, a Miami native, had an eventful day that included a stolen base. He was also thrown out trying to advance from second to third on a groundout.
Emilio Pagan pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, earning his fourth save of the year.
Miami was held to just three hits, a triple and two singles.
Marlins starter Janson Junk (0-1) was solid in 7 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits, one walk and two runs.
Cincinnati threatened in the opening frame as the first two batters reached — TJ Friedl singled, and Matt McLain walked. But Junk got out of the jam by getting Elly De La Cruz on a lineout and Stewart on a double-play grounder.
Cincinnati opened the scoring in the fourth as De La Cruz doubled past diving second baseman Leo Jimenez and scored on Stewart’s RBI single, which was smoked to center at 103 mph.
The Reds may have gotten more out of that rally but Stewart got thrown out at third base as he tried to advance on a grounder by Eugenio Suarez. Credit first baseman Connor Norby with a bullet throw to get Stewart at third.
With two outs in the sixth, Agustin Ramirez tripled off the top of the wall in right, a 360-foot, opposite-field poke. It was just the second triple in Ramirez’s brief MLB career, but he was stranded when Jakob Marsee struck out swinging at a 2-2 sweeper that was low and out of the zone.
In the seventh, Otto Lopez singled, and, with two outs, lefty reliever Brock Burke came on and struck out Xavier Edwards looking at a 95-mph fastball in the zone.
Stephenson made it 2-0 in the eighth as he slugged a hanging slider over the fence in left, and Miami’s offense never got untracked against Tony Santillan (eighth inning) or Pagan.
–Field Level Media
