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Latos, Ludwick lead Reds over Marlins

Aug 2, 2014 - 5:03 AM Miami, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Mat Latos pitched seven strong innings, Ryan Ludwick hit a two-run double and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Miami Marlins 5-2 on Friday night.

Ludwick's hit came in a three-run sixth inning that knocked Jarred Cosart out of the game in his Marlins debut.

The Reds also won the opener of the four-game series with a three-run inning on Thursday night -- scoring three runs in the eighth after a call was reversed in their favor. On Friday, Major League Baseball said the replay official who overturned the call at home plate that scored the first run and kept the inning alive for the Reds made the right decision.

So Cincinnati has won two in a row overall after snapping a nine-game road skid in the opener -- the first time it has posted consecutive wins since a five-game run from July 6-9.

"It was a great team victory. We dodged a few bullets," said Reds manager Bryan Price.

Giancarlo Stanton homered for the third straight game for the Marlins but they lost their third in a row on the heels of a six-game winning streak.

Latos (3-3) picked up his first win in four starts after allowing just one run on five hits and four walks in seven innings. He struck out five.

Hard-throwing closer Aroldis Chapman was back on the mound for the Reds after apparently tweaking a lingering hamstring injury on Thursday. He worked around a single, getting an inning-ending double play.

Cosart (0-1) pitched 5 1/3 innings a day after he was acquired in a six-player deal with Houston ahead of the non-waiver trade deadline. He gave up four runs on four hits and two walks but also got his first major-league hit.

"He looked good for five innings," said Marlins manager Mike Redmond. "It looked like he just kind of ran out of gas in the sixth."

The Reds scored three runs to take a 4-1 lead after loading the bases against Cosart with one out in the sixth. The first two came home on Ludwick's soft double to shallow left field off Chris Hatcher. Skip Schumaker followed with a sacrifice fly for the three-run lead.

Stanton lined Jonathan Broxton's first pitch over the left-field wall leading off the bottom of the eighth for his 26th homer of the season. But Cincinnati got the run back in the top of the ninth when Chris Heisey doubled and later scored on a passed ball to make it 5-2.

Cosart got his first hit on a bouncing ball up the middle leading off the third inning.

He retired the first nine Reds batters before giving up a leadoff single to Billy Hamilton in the fourth. Jay Bruce and Todd Frazier followed with hits, and Hamilton scored on the second one to give Cincinnati a 1-0 lead.

The Marlins tied the game on Jordany Valdespin's single in the fifth inning to score Adeiny Hechavarria. They had the bases loaded with two outs but the Reds successfully challenged a call at first to escape the jam.

This one was less murky than Thursday's reversal. Garrett Jones was ruled out on a grounder to first base after replays showed Latos, scrambling to catch Frazier's toss, touched the bag before Jones on a bang-bang play.

Game Notes

Cosart's hit came in his fourth major-league at-bat. The 24-year-old righty was 9-7 with a 4.41 ERA in 20 starts for the Astros this season ... Latos was 0-2 in his previous three starts ... The Marlins placed All-Star right-hander Henderson Alvarez on the 15-day disabled list Friday with right shoulder inflammation and recalled lefty Dan Jennings from Triple-A New Orleans.