WASHINGTON, D.C. — Andrés Chaparro drove in three runs, rookie Abimelec Ortiz added two more and the Washington Nationals ended Chase Burns’ 12-game winning streak with an 8-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night at Nationals Park.
Washington opened the scoring in the third. Jose Tena led off with a single, CJ Abrams doubled with one out and Ortiz cashed both in with a two-run single off Burns for a 2-0 lead. It stayed there until the sixth, when Sal Stewart singled with one down and Eugenio Suárez tied it with a two-run home run over the bullpen in left-center.
The tie lasted half an inning. Burns returned for the bottom of the sixth and never got out of it, giving up a leadoff double, an RBI single and another double before recording a strikeout, then walking the next two batters. He ran his pitch count to 23 in the frame before being lifted. Sam Moll relieved and surrendered a two-run double, though Cincinnati limited the damage when JJ Bleday’s relay found Elly De La Cruz, whose 100 mph throw home cut down a third runner by 10 feet. Another RBI single made it 6-2.
The Nationals tacked on twice in the eighth against Ron Marinaccio, who had worked a perfect seventh. He walked Jorbit Vivas with one out, watched Vivas steal second and gave up an RBI single to Chaparro on a play at the plate that Jose Trevino could not complete. Marinaccio then hit a batter and allowed another run-scoring single before a wild pitch closed out the inning. Clayton Beeter (5-3) earned the win with a scoreless eighth. Burns (13-2) matched his season high with five earned runs on six hits, walking three and striking out six — only the third time in 22 starts this season he has allowed more than three earned runs. Cincinnati managed just five hits and went down in order in the ninth.
Washington out-hit Cincinnati 10-5 and played error-free baseball in front of 32,602 in a game that took 2 hours, 35 minutes. The Nationals improved to 58-61 and clinched the three-game set with a day to spare; the Reds fell to 56-60. The teams close the series Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park.
Box score via Baseball-Reference. Additional game detail via Redleg Nation.