Cueto, Taveras lead Reds to 10-3 rout of Arizona, three-game sweep of D-backs

Phillips, Taveras lead Reds to sweep of D-backs

PHOENIX — Brandon Phillips drove in four runs and the Cincinnati Reds beat the stumbling Arizona Diamondbacks 10-3 on Wednesday night to complete a three-game sweep.

Gerardo Parra homered in his first major league at-bat but Arizona could muster little offense beyond that against Johnny Cueto.

Willy Taveras singled three times, scoring twice, to extend his hitting streak to 14 games and Jerry Hairston Jr. doubled and tripled as the Reds won for the sixth time in seven games to climb a season-best six games above .500. Taveras had nine hits in the series, and Phillips had six hits and eight RBIs.

The Reds (20-14) improved to 13-5 on the road, best in the majors. They had 26 runs and 38 hits in the series.

Cueto (4-1) allowed three runs and four hits in seven innings for his third consecutive victory. The 23-year-old right-hander had his fifth straight outing of at least seven innings.

Phillips put the Reds ahead for good with a two-run triple in the third off 22-year-old Bryan Augenstein, who like Parra was called up from Double-A Mobile for his big league debut.

The Diamondbacks’ Augie Ojeda ended a streak of 410 at-bats without a home run — a span of nearly two years — with a solo shot in the seventh inning.

Augenstein (0-1) gave up five runs and eight hits in 6 1-3 innings as the Diamondbacks fell to 1-5 since manager Bob Melvin was fired and replaced by A.J. Hinch. Arizona has lost nine of 11 overall.

Parra hit Cueto’s 1-1 pitch 379 feet into the right-field seats in the first inning. He is the 100th player to homer in his first at-bat in the majors, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He is the second to do it this year. Jordan Schafer of Atlanta accomplished the feat in the season opener.

Stephen Drew, back in the Arizona lineup after more than a month on the disabled list (strained hamstring), had an RBI single to cut Cincinnati’s lead to 3-2 in the sixth.

The Reds broke it open with five runs in the seventh. Hairston doubled in a run. Adam Rosales, Chris Dickerson and Ryan Hanigan followed with RBI singles. The other run scored on catcher Miguel Montero’s throwing error.