Rhett Lowder pitched six scoreless innings Saturday afternoon and the visiting Cincinnati Reds defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1.
Lowder (7-12) allowed three hits and two walks with two strikeouts to finish the season with a 5.74 ERA.
JJ Bleday hit a solo home run for the Reds (75-86), who gained a split of the first two games of the season-ending three-game series with the Blue Jays (78-83). Hector Rodriguez added a two-run triple and went 2-for-4.
Lowder worked around two walks to open the home first with the help of a double play and was on cruise control for the rest of his outing.
Cincinnati took a 1-0 lead against Trey Yesavage (5-6) when Bleday led off the second by pounding a 1-0 fastball to right center for his career-best 24th homer of the season.
Yesavage, who was making his second start after arthroscopic knee surgery, allowed one run, two hits and one walk with three strikeouts in two innings.
The Reds added two runs against Spencer Miles in the third. Matt McLain walked and Carlos Jorge beat out a bunt single down the first-base line. After a double steal, McLain scored when Andres Gimenez fumbled Sal Stewart’s grounder to shortstop. Eugenio Suarez followed by cracking an RBI double to left.
Cincinnati scored twice in the fifth against John Klein. Bleday walked with two out and took second when Sean Keys was charged with an error for misplaying Tyler Stephenson’s cue shot along the first-base line. Both runners scored on a triple to left by Rodriguez over the head of Josh Smith, who backed into the wall and then had to chase the ball.
Lowder, meanwhile, had no trouble with the Blue Jays before Connor Phillips replaced him in the seventh and allowed one run.
Kazuma Okamoto led off with a walk, took third on Smith’s double and scampered home on Gimenez’s groundout to second.
Toronto got four solid relief innings from Klein, who allowed two unearned runs and fanned five Reds.
Cincinnati’s Graham Ashcraft pitched around a single in the eighth and Tejay Antone took care of the ninth for the Reds.
–Field Level Media
