The first four Washington Nationals scored in the first inning and held on to sweep the Reds on a 6-3 win. The Reds swept Washington a month ago in four games in the capitol. The Nationals turned the tables to send the Reds to a sixth straight defeat.
Lyon Richardson had until 1:42 pm Sunday to enjoy his first Major League appearance. CJ Abrams proved inhospitable, launching his 11th home run of the season deep into the right field stands on Richardson's first pitch. Lane Thomas continued his assault of the Reds in general by hitting Richardson's second pitch on the grassy knoll in center. It was his 19th home run of the season and third of the series. Joe Meneses walked. Keibert Ruiz dumped a single into left. They moved up on a ground out and scored on Jake Alu's single.
"I didn't think I made that bad of a pitch," Richardson said. "I might have missed a little bit more middle than I wanted to. I think he was just ready for a heater and hit it."
Richardson, 23, was the Reds second pick in the 2018 draft between Jonathan India and Washington's Josiah Gray. He missed 2022 with an injury but moved through the Reds' system rapidly this year. The Jensen Beach, Florida native made three starts at Daytona, 15 at Chattanooga and one in Louisville with a 1.86 ERA with a 0-2 record. His longest outing was four innings.
Ben Lively strained his left pectoral muscle while giving up 13 runs to the Chicago Cubs. Richardson filled in on Sunday.
"I don't think I'd redo it," Richardson said. "I was just thinking that I had to get myself dialed in and get a few outs here. There is always nerves but I do a pretty good job of managing it. It wasn't necessarily the nerves that got the pitches hit. It was me."
Washington starter, Jake Irvin, retired the first four Reds' batters before Joey Votto deposited his 12th home run of the season into the left field stands to cut the Nationals' lead to 4-1. Irvin lost his control walking Tyler Stephenson, who was forced at second and Will Benson. Stuart Fairchild delivered a two-out RBI single making it 4-2.
TJ Friedl homered for the second straight day. His 10th home run made it a one-run game.
Richardson retired seven of the last nine batters he faced with two walks. He pitched three innings, allowing four runs on four hits with three walks and two strikeouts.
"It was unfortunate way to start the game and major league career," David Bell said. "He has a long one ahead of him and just the way he was able to keep pitching and hold it together for three innings, really says a lot about him. It is a tough way to start, I mean, you get off to a rough start like that in your debut. We've seen guys back away. We've known that about Lyon. He was given an opportunity there to demonstrate who he is and why he's going to be so good."
Buck Farmer walked Alex Call with one out in the fourth. The .207 hitter walked for the fourth time in the series. Abrams singled Call to third but he was caught stealing home on the back end of a double steal when Stephenson's through was returned by Matt McLain. Thomas doubled to score Abrams to build the Nationals' lead to 5-3. Farmer left in favor of Sam Moll after walking the bases loaded. Moll got Dominic Smith to roll over a 2-0 pitch to McLain to end the threat.
Moll, Fernando Cruz, and Alex Young kept the Reds off the scoreboard until Young felt some discomfort and left the game with a runner on first and no outs with a 3-2 count to Call. Lucas Sims came into the game. He completed the strikeout of Call. Abrams hit his second double of the game. Stone Garrett, who walked against Young to open the inning was running and De la Cruz faked him into thinking the ball was in the infield and stopped at third. Thomas hit a fly to deep right, scoring Garrett to push the lead back to 6-3.
Kyle Finnegan, who had allowed just two earned runs in his last 24 2/3 innings (0.83) came into to finish all three games of the series, earning a save on Friday. Stephenson and Senzel singled with one out bringing the tying run to the plate but Spencer Steer struck out and Fairchild lined out to right.
The Reds had a six-game losing streak from April 18 - 23. They responded with a five game winning streak. They had another six game losing streak from the last game before the All-Star break through the first five after the break. They also followed it with a five game winning streak.
"We're playing to be there in the end," Bell said. "We're not playing for one week. We're not playing for two or three days. Having said that every single game matters an incredible amount to each and every person on our team. We have to continue to keep it in perspective."
Milwaukee lost to Pittsburgh 4-1 on Sunday. The Reds stay 1 1/2 games behind the Brewers. The Chicago Cubs defeated the Atlanta Braves 6-4 to move into a tie with the Reds.
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