Reds 6 - 2 Diamondbacks
Final
  for this game

Latos, Reds aim for sweep of Diamondbacks

Aug 29, 2012 - 1:27 PM

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(Sports Network) - One day after Cincinnati ace Johnny Cueto became baseball's first 17-game winner, teammate Mat Latos will try to pitch the Reds to a sweep of their three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday afternoon.

Cueto logged his major league-leading win on Tuesday with a 5-2 victory, giving up two runs on four hits in seven innings. He won for the eighth time in his last nine decisions.

"Every time he goes out there we expect to win," Reds manager Dusty Baker said of Cueto. "He doesn't want to give up anything. That's the kind of guys that we like to be around."

Todd Frazier and Ryan Hanigan backed their ace with a pair of RBI each as the Reds won for the third time in four games and extended their lead over the St. Louis Cardinals for first place in the NL Central to seven games.

Arizona, meanwhile, lost its fifth game in a row after starter Wade Miley yielded three runs -- all in the second inning -- over seven frames.

"Wade couldn't get the ball down that inning. The balls were elevated and they were hitting them," Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said.

Gerardo Parra had two doubles, scored once and knocked in a run in defeat, one that has Arizona 7 1/2 games out of a wild card spot in the NL.

Cincinnati is banking on Latos snapping his own personal slide as he is 0-1 over his last four starts. The right-hander hadn't factored into the decision of his previous three outings and had gone at least seven frames in five straight before getting shelled by the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.

Latos was hammered for seven runs on nine hits, two homers and a walk in five- plus innings of an 8-5 loss, falling to 10-4 with a 3.84 earned run average in 26 outings this season.

The 24-year-old had similar results when he faced the Diamondbacks on July 18, charged with five runs over 4 2/3 frames of a defeat. Latos yielded a pair of home runs to Jason Kubel and fell to 1-1 with a 3.41 ERA in five lifetime encounters with Arizona.

The Diamondbacks' Patrick Corbin draws the start for today's finale.

The rookie was aiming for a fourth straight winning decision on Friday against the San Diego Padres, but instead yielded four runs for the second outing in a row while also getting touched for nine hits in four innings. Corbin fell to 5-5 with a save and 3.91 ERA in 15 games this season, including 10 starts.

The 23-year-old lefty will face the Reds for the first time.

The D-Backs and Reds split a four-game series in Cincinnati from July 16-19. The Reds last swept the Diamondbacks from Aug. 17-19, 2010 in Arizona.






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