Leake pitches, hits Reds over Indians, 6-1
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Mike Leake pitched six effective innings and drove in three runs as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Cleveland Indians 6-1 on Friday night.
Marlon Byrd had a homer among his four hits and Joey Votto added a solo shot for the Reds, who lost their last two games and three of four before the All-Star break.
Leake (7-5), who can become a free agent after the season and is considered by many to be trade bait for the struggling Reds, allowed one run and four hits with two walks and two strikeouts while improving to 4-1 over his last six starts.
Ryan Mattheus, J.J. Hoover and Burke Badenhop all pitched one scoreless inning in relief for Cincinnati.
Trevor Bauer, who had won his last two starts, lasted just four innings for a Cleveland team that has lost three straight after a four-game winning streak. Bauer (8-6) allowed seven hits and five runs with two walks and five strikeouts.
Byrd hit his 15th homer of the season with one out in the second, a 346-foot opposite-field shot into the seats in right field. That was the first of three consecutive hits, a rally capped by Leake's RBI squeeze bunt.
Leake pushed the lead to 4-0 in the third with a ringing, bases-loaded double that one-hopped the wall in right-center.
Votto added his 16th homer with one out in the fourth, a 418-foot drive to center that glanced off the bottom of the batter's eye.
The Indians put at least one runner on base in all of but one of Leake's six innings, but they couldn't push one past second until the sixth. Francisco Lindor led off with a single and went to third on Michael Brantley's double, setting up Carlos Santana's run-scoring groundout.