Boxscore

The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Houston Astros today 6-5, taking the weekend series. That is the Reds’ third consecutive series win and has their record back at .500 at 11-11.

Mat Latos started for the Reds and was bad again. He pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing 5 runs from 10 hits, including 2 home runs, and struck out 4. On the season, Latos has started five games, but only one of them was good. His last start against San Francisco resulted in a shutout, but so far, all of his other starts have been a disappointment.

While I’m not too concerned about Latos–I’m confident he’s just having a slow start to the season and will improve–the bad starts do grow tiresome. Thankfully, the Reds’ offense has improved and were good enough to bail out Latos today.

Joey Votto tied the game twice with his awesomeness today. Once in the 4th inning when he hit a two-run home run–his second on the season and two more than Albert Pujols–to tie the game at 2-2. And then again in the 5th inning when he lined a double down the right field line to drive in two and tie it at 5-5.

The game stayed tied until the bottom of the 8th when Jay Bruce came to the plate and hit his fourth home run in four days. That gave the Reds the lead for the first time all day and allowed closer Sean Marshall to enter and absolve his last save failure with a 1-2-3 save.

The Reds finished the month of April with a record of 11-11. They have an off day on Monday before the Chicago Cubs come to town. Bronson Arroyo takes on Jeff Samardzija at 7:10pm EDT.