In second straight start vs. Cubs, Abbott dominates with one-hit ball

CHICAGO -- This time vs. the Cubs, the Reds had two things going for them to prevent a late-inning comeback. One, they kept hitting home runs. Two, they had a very sharp Andrew Abbott on the mound.

Abbott gave up one hit over seven scoreless innings as the Reds powered up behind him for a 6-2 series-opening victory at Wrigley Field on Friday.

“That’s the combination you ideally want for sure," said catcher Tyler Stephenson, who hit a two-run homer to center field in the fourth inning to give the Reds a 4-0 lead. "Obviously, that’s a really good lineup and we’ve got to score as much as we can. The arms did their job today.”

Abbott, who allowed only Justin Turner's leadoff single in the third inning, walked one and struck out eight while throwing 93 pitches to lower his ERA to 1.51 over his nine starts. He's given up one run or fewer in eight of his nine starts this season.

After Turner's hit, Abbott retired his final 15 batters. In his previous start last Saturday vs. the Cubs at Great American Ball Park, he earned the win after allowing one run on six hits over 5 2/3 innings.

In that set, the Cubs took the other two games and the series.

“They’ve got a really good lineup," Abbott said. "Fortunately, I had a lot better location, a lot better offspeed in the zone early. I was able to put pitches where I needed to more frequently than last time.

"Me and [pitching coach Derek Johnson] talked about that.

"The difference between this start and the [last] was landing breaking balls, landing changeups and keeping them more off-balance and not being so predictable with just fastballs. That was the plan coming in. I would say we did a pretty good job of applying it.”

Abbott did throw his four-seamer the most (44) of his five pitches, but he threw the others -- his changeup, curveball, cutter and sweeper -- a combined 52 times.

Among qualified big league starters, Abbott's 0.55 ERA over six starts in May is the lowest. It's also the third-lowest ERA in a calendar month by any Reds pitcher since ERA became an official statistic in 1912 -- behind John Franco (0.30 in August 1985) and Dolf Luque (0.50 in June 1923).

“When you get a lefty that starts commanding and then adding and subtracting and cutting, for our side it’s good. It can be tough to beat," Reds manager Terry Francona said. “Wind’s blowing out, he used his changeup, he used his cutter. He elevated his fastball. He really kept them off the barrel really well.”

Cincinnati (29-29) has won three of its last four games.

Against Cubs starter Colin Rea, TJ Friedl opened the game by hitting a 1-1 pitch into the right-field seats for a leadoff homer -- the fourth of his career and third this season. Elly De La Cruz hit a one-out double to left-center field and scored on Gavin Lux's RBI single to right field.

Following Stephenson's two-run homer in the fourth, another two-run blast came in the top of the sixth, this time from Jake Fraley, to give Cincinnati a six-run advantage.

Even then, it didn't feel like enough. In last weekend's series vs. the Reds, the Cubs outscored them, 21-0, in the seventh, eighth and nine innings.

That's what made Abbott's length important. After Cincinnati's rotation had just one start of at least seven innings from April 28-May 25, they've gotten three this week: from Abbott, Nick Martinez and Brady Singer -- all in wins.

That meant the Reds' bullpen had to cover only six outs again on Friday.

“If we would’ve had to cover nine, we might still be playing," Francona said.

Abbott felt he had more in the tank but understood making way for the bullpen.

“The competitor in me would have loved to go back. But I knew I had faced them two times through and the first half of the lineup a third time," Abbott said. "I didn’t want them to come into an inning and have a mess and have to clean that up."

Chicago's often-relentless lineup finally emerged after Abbott's exit with two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning against Tony Santillan. After four straight batters reached with one out against Santillan, Graham Ashcraft took over and induced an inning-ending double play from Kyle Tucker to escape the jam.

And after Ashcraft allowed two hits in the bottom of the ninth, Emilio Pagán came on to strand both baserunners and get his 14th save of the season.