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Cueto outduels Sabathia, Reds top Yanks

May 20, 2012 - 11:33 PM Bronx, NY (Sports Network) - Ryan Ludwick homered and drove in three runs on Sunday and the Cincinnati Reds beat the New York Yankees for the second day in a row, 5-2, to finish off a three-game series.

Johnny Cueto (5-1) pitched into the eighth inning, outlasting Yankees ace CC Sabathia, and picked up the win after allowing two runs on eight hits and two walks.

The 26-year-old righty, coming off his first loss last Tuesday at Atlanta, struck out five.

Sabathia (5-2) didn't give up a hit until the fifth but allowed three runs in the seventh to lose a 2-0 lead. The runs included solo homers by Ludwick and Ryan Hanigan.

The 31-year-old lefty has dropped two straight starts and the Yankees have lost five of their last six games. Sabathia suffered only his eighth loss in 42 career interleague starts (20-8).

"It was 2-0 in the seventh inning," said Sabathia. "That should be good enough to win a ballgame, especially since I felt like I was pitching pretty good up until that point. It should be enough."

Raul Ibanez hit a two-run homer for New York.

The Reds won despite going just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranding 11 men on base.

Ibanez gave the scoreless game a jolt in the sixth with his ninth homer of the year, a high two-run shot to right on a 94 mph fastball.

But the Reds came back with a pair of homers and three runs in the seventh to take the lead. Ludwick hit a first-pitch sinker over the left field wall for his fourth homer leading off and Hanigan cracked a one-out fastball to left for his first blast of the season.

"Those two runs put us right back in the game," said Reds manager Dusty Baker.

The Reds loaded the bases after Hanigan's homer, and Sabathia walked Brandon Phillips on an outside 3-2 pitch to force in the go-ahead run.

Curtis Granderson singled to lead off the eighth inning, chasing Cueto for Sean Marshall, who got the first out. Alex Rodriguez then hit a long fly ball to left off Logan Ondrusek that he appeared to think was a homer as he flipped his bat and trotted toward first.

The ball died in the wind before the warning track, however, and Ibanez popped out to end the inning.

"I thought that ball was gone, big time," Baker said of Rodriguez's long fly out. "He probably thought it was gone, too. But the elements were with us on that one."

Cincinnati tacked on a pair of runs in the ninth on Ludwick's two-run double and Aroldis Chapman stranded a runner at second base in the ninth to pick up his first save.

Defense and good pitching dominated the earlier innings.

In the third inning, Phillips and Joey Votto combined for a highlight-reel double play on a grounder hit up the middle by Derek Jeter.

Phillips slid behind second to field the ball, tagged the base with his glove while he was still on the ground, then threw wide to first. Votto came off the bag and scraped Jeter with a tag to finish it off.

Votto was retired on a good play in the fourth by Robinson Cano, who scrambled toward second base for a grounder and threw sidearm across his body to first.

In the bottom of the fourth, Votto started an inning-ending double play with a pick at first on Eric Chavez's sharp grounder. He gunned it to second for the lead runner and stepped back to first for the return throw.

Cincinnati was hitless until Todd Frazier's single through the left side past a diving Jeter with one out in the fifth. Frazier was caught stealing second, but Hanigan had a base hit and Zack Cozart reached on an error by Rodriguez at third to put two runners on.

Sabathia escaped trouble on a Chris Heisey pop out, then stranded a runner at third in the next inning.

Game Notes

Sabathia gave up three runs on six hits and five walks, striking out six in seven innings...The Reds struck out 10 times in the game and 35 times in the series...The Yankees will continue a six-game homestand with a three-game series against Kansas City starting on Monday...The Reds went 4-3 on a seven- game road trip, the last five games in New York against the Mets and Yankees. They return to Cincinnati for seven straight at home starting with the opener of a four-game series against Atlanta on Monday...Jeter was 0-for-4 and had an eight-game hitting streak snapped.