Joey Votto Leads Reds Over Cubs

On May 22nd, Joey Votto was hitting a paltry .208 and the Reds' offense was impotent.

The next game he had two hits against the Chicago Cubs.  On Friday, Votto got hits in his first three at bats to give him an even 1,800 for his career and improved to .360 (36-for-100) since then.  He was the catalyst reaching base five times, including four hits in the Reds' 6-3 win over the Chicago Cubs.

While Sonny Gray was retiring 16 of the first 18 Cubs' batters, Votto scored two runs and drove in one helping to build a 6-0 lead.

"This is an important series for us to get where we want to be," Gray said.  "We had to get the lead and keep it and that's what we did."

Votto singled with one out in the first.  Eugenio Suarez walked and Yasiel Puig singled to load the bases.  Jose Iglesias hit into a force play to drive in Votto.

Phil Ervin hit his first home run of the season off Mike Montgomery, leading off the second inning.

Ervin opened the fourth with a double.  Gray bunted Ervin to third.  Curt Casali walked.  Nick Senzel hit a double off Kyle Schwarber's glove in left to score two runs.  Votto singled to score Senzel. Suarez drew his second walk and Puig hit his second single to load the bases.  This time Iglesias delivered the run with a fly out to deep center.

Senzel cost his team a run with a rookie mistake in the second.  There were two outs when Senzel walked.  He stole second but waited for Votto's single to bounce in front of Albert Almora Jr. before advancing to third.  Had he been running on contact there is a good chance he would have scored.

"He felt terrible," David Bell said.  "All you can do is wait for your next at bat."

He atoned with his two-run double.

Gray pitched into the seventh.  Javier Baez beat out a slow roller to third to start the inning.  Willson Contreras hit a long fly that Senzel fielded against the center field fence.  Baez moved to second.  He took third on a wild pitch and scored on Jason Heyward's 12th home run.

David Bell brought David Hernandez into the game as Gray fell one out short of his longest outing of the season which was 6-2/3 innings on April 5.

Addison Russel tripled and Almora hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead in half.

Amir Garrett and Michael Lorenzen got the last five outs with the help of Puig's catch of Heyward's line drive to the wall in right.  Lorenzen earned his fifth save.

"Not only did Michael save the game but he set us up for tomorrow," Bell said.