CINCINNATI (AP) — Hunter Greene struck out 12 and allowed three hits in seven dominant innings, Elly De La Cruz and JJ Bleday homered and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs 4-0 on Friday night.
Greene (1-1) missed the first three months of the season after undergoing surgery on March 11 to remove bone chips from his right elbow. The right-hander struggled in his debut on July 4 against Baltimore, going 3 1/3 innings and tying a career high with eight earned runs allowed.
The 26-year-old Greene bounced back with one of the best outings of his five-year career, throwing 68 strikes on 93 pitches. The 12 strikeouts tied for the second-most of his career and he threw 19 first-pitch strikes to the 25 batters he faced.
Greene allowed just four baserunners, with only two reaching second base. Chicago had runners on first and second with one out in the seventh, but Nico Hoerner lined out to center and Michael Conforto struck out.
Emilio Pagán finished for his eighth save in 11 opportunities.
De La Cruz led off the fifth by lining a fastball off Cubs starter Shota Imanaga (5-8) into the stands in left-center. De La Cruz had a triple into the right-field corner and scored on Sal Stewart's sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
Spencer Steer, who had three hits, followed with an infield single before Bleday drove Jake Woodford's cutter over the wall in center.
Cubs hitters set a season high by striking out 15 times against three Cincinnati pitchers.
Chicago sends right-hander Javier Assad (6-1, 4.15 ERA) to the mound while Cincinnati will go with lefty Nick Lodolo (3-2, 4.68 ERA).
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Only subscribers can view and post comments on articles.
Already a subscriber? Login Here
Pickleball Read morePickleball
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.