Atlanta Braves vs Cincinnati Reds Match Player Stats On Apr 23, 2019

Home runs by Yasiel Puig and Tucker Barnhart helped jolt life into the sleepy Cincinnati lineup on Tuesday and led the Reds to a 7-6 win over the visiting Atlanta Braves.

The seven runs were the second-most scored this season by the Reds -- last in the National League in hitting -- and their biggest offensive outburst since they scored 14 against the Miami Marlins on April 9.

Puig was 2-for-4 with a homer, a run scored and three RBIs. The Reds have won four of their last five.

Atlanta's Freddie Freeman had a hit and has reached base in all 22 games to start the season. It's the longest season-opening on-base streak for Freeman and 15 short of the franchise record set by Eddie Mathews in 1961. But Freeman grounded out with a runner on third to end the game.

Cincinnati starter Sonny Gray worked 5 1/3 innings and allowed four runs, three earned on six hits. Gray struck out nine for the second straight game and did not walk a batter.

Robert Stephenson (2-0), who relieved Gray and struck out both batters he faced, got credit for the win.

Closer Raisel Iglesias worked around a leadoff double to pinch hitter Matt Joyce in the top of the ninth and retired the next three batters to earn his fifth save.

The losing pitcher was Kevin Gausman (1-2), who allowed six runs, five earned, on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. Gausman struck out six and walked two.

The Reds jumped in front 2-0 when Puig hit a two-run homer, his third, in the first inning.

Cincinnati made it 3-0 in the fourth when Barnhart clubbed his second homer of the season, a solo shot, to right center.

Atlanta got on the board in the fifth on Ender Inciarte's sacrifice fly and took the lead with three runs in the sixth. Josh Donaldson, who had two homers on Sunday, doubled in a run before Freeman singled home Donaldson and Nick Markakis put the Braves ahead 4-3 with a sacrifice fly that scored Freeman.

But the Reds answered with four runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 7-4 lead. Jose Peraza doubled home a pair of runs, Phillip Ervin picked up an RBI when he walked with the bases loaded, and Puig capped off the rally with a sacrifice fly.

The Braves cut the lead to 7-5 when pinch hitter Charlie Culberson doubled in a run in the seventh.

Atlanta inched closer in the eighth on Dansby Swanson's RBI double, but the next two batters failed to bring him home.

The Reds were playing without left fielder Matt Kemp, who was placed on the injured list with a broken rib sustained when he ran into the wall on Sunday in San Diego. They recalled Ervin from Triple-A Louisville.

--Field Level Media