(Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
CINCINNATI - Stuart Fairchild and Tyler Stephenson hit solo home runs and Andrew Abbott threw six scoreless innings in his major league debut, leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 2-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night.
The struggling Reds (27-33) turned to Abbott, their top pitching prospect, to help the club avoid a four-game sweep at the hands of the Brewers (32-28), and it worked.
The 24-year-old Abbott, the 2021 second-round draft pick from the University of Virginia, allowed just one hit, walked four and struck out six. The left-hander threw 105 pitches.
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Abbott took 28 pitches to get out of the first inning before settling down and getting out of the inning unscathed after walking one and striking out another.
Fairchild scored the first run of the game in the third inning, taking an 0-2 pitch from Brewers starter Julio Teheran (1-2) 395 feet to left field for his second home run of the season.
Cincinnati carried the 1-0 lead and Abbott took a no-hitter into the fourth inning. That’s when Stephenson doubled the Reds’ output with his third homer of the year, a 363-foot shot to right-center.
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Abbott allowed his only hit of the game in the fifth when Joey Wiemer doubled to left.
Abbott got out of the sixth and then was pulled. Four of his six strikeouts came on a fastball. The others came via his curveball.
Cincinnati relievers Buck Farmer and Lucas Sims and closer Alexis Diaz completed the combined three-hitter. Diaz picked up his 14th save.
Wiemer had two of the Brewers' hits, while Owen Miller accounted for the other.