CINCINNATI –

Homer Bailey lived up to his name by beating his hometown team for the fourth time.

Bailey shut Houston down again and came up with a career-high three hits and Devin Mesoraco homered to help the Cincinnati Reds snap a four-game losing streak with a 6-4 win over the Astros on Tuesday night.

Brandon Phillips also homered while Jay Bruce had three hits and Dave Sappelt and Juan Francisco each added two hits each as the Reds broke out of a slump. Their nine hits through five innings were one more than their total from the previous three games.

Bailey (9-7), who went into the game 3-0 with a 0.86 ERA in three starts against the Astros this season, set a career-high in wins while allowing six hits and two runs with two walks and five strikeouts in seven innings.

“He did everything tonight,” Dusty Baker said. “He fielded and got three hits. We needed him to go deep in the game with our bullpen situation.”

Bailey is from LaGrange, Texas a little over 100 miles from Houston.

“I like to pitch in Houston more,” Bailey said.

The 25-year set career highs even though he missed the first five weeks of the season with an impingement in his right shoulder.

“My number one goal for next year is to stay healthy,” Bailey said. “I had some injuries that were no one’s fault but if you look at my wins per start, I’d be at 15 wins over a full season.”

Houston manager Brad Mills has seen enough of Bailey for the year.

“How about that not only pitching against us but offensively too. He’s had some good outings against us,” Mills said.

Francisco Cordero pitched the ninth for his 34th save.

Houston starter Bud Norris (6-11) left the game two outs into the third inning with discomfort in his right shoulder. Norris allowed seven hits and three runs with two walks and three strikeouts while setting a career high in losses.

Juan Francisco led off Cincinnati’s second against Norris with a single to center. After Drew Stubbs, extending his single-season franchise strikeout record to 199, Mesoraco hit a 369-foot line drive into the left field seats for his second career homer.

The Reds loaded the bases on singles by Paul Janish and Bailey and a walk by Phillips, and Sappelt grounded an RBI single up the middle for a 3-0 lead.

Houston cut the lead to 3-2 in the third on Jordan Shafer’s leadoff walk and J.D. Martinez’s one-out homer into the visitors’ bullpen down the right field line.

The 334-foot drive on Bailey’s first pitch was Martinez’s ninth homer of the season and first since Aug. 20. That matched the number of runs scored by the Astros in Bailey’s three previous starts against them this season.

The Reds regained their three-run lead in the fourth on Bailey’s leadoff single, Sappelt’s one-out walk, a wild pitch and Bruce’s two-run single, which snapped a 0-for-16 drought.

Pinch-hitter Chris Johnson roughed up reliever Bill Bray for a two-run homer into the second deck of the left field bleachers in the eighth. It was his seventh homer of the season and first pinch-hit homer of his career.

Phillips countered in the bottom of the eighth with his 18th homer of the season into the Reds’ bullpen in left-center field. It was his sixth in the first nine games of this homestand.

“I’m just swinging the bat,” Phillips said. “I feel comfortable at the top of the lineup.”

The win tied Baker with Earl Weaver with 1,480 career wins and 21st place all-time.

“It took a week to get,” Baker said. “It’s nice to move up the ladder but we really just needed the win.”

Notes: Reds RHP Johnny Cueto will finish six innings short of qualifying for the ERA championship. Cueto, who left his last start with a strained muscle in his upper right back, said Tuesday that doctors have advised him to not throw for a while. Currently second to Los Angeles LHP Clayton Kershaw in the ERA race, Cueto needed six innings to reach the 162 he needs to qualify for the title. … The start of the game was delayed 13 minutes by rain. … Cincinnati’s Joey Votto singled in the ninth after going a season-high 14 at bats without a hit. … Houston’s Brett Wallace is hitless in his last 27 at bats after striking out as a pinch-hitter in the seventh. … Houston LHP Wandy Rodriguez, Wednesday’s scheduled starter, has been on a strikeout tear lately, with a total of 33 over his last 24 2-3 innings, spanning four starts. He needs two to reach 1,000 for his career. … Cincinnati’s starter, RHP Bronson Arroyo, will very likely see his streak of consecutive 200-inning seasons snapped at six. He has 182 innings with two remaining starts.

CINCINNATI, Sept. 20 (UPI) — Homer Bailey held the Astros to two runs over seven innings and the Cincinnati Reds pounded out 14 hits Tuesday in their 6-4 victory over Houston.

Bailey (9-7) yielded six hits, walked two and struck out five for Cincinnati, allowing only J.D. Martinez’s two-run homer in the third inning en route to his second win in three starts.

The Reds’ bullpen surrendered a pair of runs but Francisco Cordero nailed down the win, earning his 34th save with a scoreless ninth.

Jay Bruce went 3-for-5 with a two-run single while Brandon Phillips and Devin Mesoraco each homered for the Reds.

Houston’s Bud Norris (6-11) was saddled with the loss, surrendering three runs on seven hits over just 2 2/3 frames.

Martinez finished 3-for-5 and Chris Johnson added a two-run, pinch-hit homer in the eighth for the Astros.

Carlos Pena hit a tiebreaking three-run homer in the eighth inning to send the Chicago Cubs to a 6-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night.

Aramis Ramirez had a two-run double for Chicago, which took two of three against Cincinnati to earn a split of its six-game homestand. Starlin Castro and DJ LeMahieu each had two hits for the Cubs.

Castro sparked the winning rally with a leadoff single against Logan Ondrusek (4-4). Reed Johnson moved Castro to second with a sacrifice before the Reds decided to intentionally walk Ramirez and bring in left-hander Bill Bray to face the lefty-batting Pena.

Pena pulled Bray’s first pitch onto Sheffield Avenue for his 26th homer and third in his last eight games.

Yonder Alonso had three hits for Cincinnati, which has lost seven of 10.

CINCINNATI – Brandon Phillips got two more hits in the leadoff spot and the Cincinnati Reds reached .500 for the first time since early July with a 6-3 win over the Washington Nationals on Saturday night.

Phillips scored twice and drove in a run. He’s gotten a hit in 10 straight games at the top of the lineup, going 19 for 43 (.442) with 10 RBIs and nine runs in that span.

Mike Leake (11-8) gave up two runs in six innings, and leads the team in wins.

Cincinnati (66-66) has won six of eight and is at .500 for the first time since the NL Central champions were 44-44 on July 6. Drew Stubbs went 3 for 3 with a sacrifice fly.

Nationals first baseman Chris Marrero committed two key errors in his major league debut as Washington lost its fifth in a row, one short of its season high.

Phillips led off the bottom of the first with a sharp grounder to Marrero, who let the first ball hit to him as a big leaguer get through for an error. Phillips went to second on Dave Sappelt’s sacrifice, to third on Joey Votto’s groundout to Marrero and scored on Ross Detwiler’s wild pitch.

The Nationals took a 2-1 lead in the third on Wilson Ramos’ 12th home run of the season and second in two nights, and Jayson Werth’s 16th homer.

Marrero’s second error led to Cincinnati’s three-run fourth. Phillips opened with a single and Sappelt also singled. Marrero fielded Votto’s possible double-play grounder, but his throw to second sailed into left field, allowing Phillips to score from second despite having to go back and tag third after missing it on his first try.

Bruce walked to load the bases and Miguel Cairo and Drew Stubbs each hit a sacrifice fly.

The Reds made it 6-2 in the sixth. Cairo doubled and stole third but had to hold as pulled-in shortstop Ian Desmond speared Stubbs’ sharp one-hopper. Desmond jumped up and threw to third trying to catch Cairo off the bag, but Cairo got back in time, setting up Edgar Renteria’s sacrifice fly.

Detwiler (2-4) allowed just three earned runs among his overall six. He struck out four and walked one in six innings.

Michael Morse added a 438-foot solo home run into the upper deck in left field off of Reds reliever Sam LeCure in the eighth.

Bill Bray got the final out of the eighth and Francisco Cordero pitched the ninth for his 29th save and 12th straight since the All-Star break.

NOTES: Marrero, Washington’s top pick and the overall No. 15 selection in the 2006 draft, was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse on Saturday. He singled cleanly to left in the fourth for his first major league hit. … Werth started in center field for the first time this season as manager Davey Johnson started looking at different combinations. … Reds OF Chris Heisey was sent to Triple-A Louisville on a rehab assignment. He has been out since Aug. 7 with a strained left oblique. … Cincinnati RHP Johnny Cueto goes into Sunday’s start leading the league with a 2.03 ERA and holding opponents to a league-best .203 batting average. … RHP Jordan Zimmerman’s start against Cincinnati on Sunday is expected to be his last of the season. He’s likely to reach the cap on innings set for him by management.

WASHINGTON — Johnny Cueto and the Cincinnati Reds completely shut down the Washington Nationals for eight innings. In the ninth, they used a little luck to close out the win.Cueto pitched eight scoreless innings and Francisco Cordero got a double play to get out of a bases-loaded jam and end the 2-1 victory Wednesday night.”We were fortunate to get that one,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “We squeaked that one out big time.”Cincinnati took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth, as Cueto (9-5) aimed for his second shutout of the season. Instead, Ryan Zimmerman homered on his first pitch of the inning and Baker turned to Cordero.After a groundout, Jayson Werth walked, Danny Espinosa singled and Jonny Gomes reached on shortstop Paul Janish’s error to load the bases.Wilson Ramos then grounded to second baseman Brandon Phillips, who started the 4-6-3 double play.”That was the play that saved the game,” said Cordero, who earned his 24th save. “Any other stuff happens there, the game is tied. It was the best thing that could happen tonight, and it happened.”The Nationals’ rally nearly erased Cueto’s tremendous performance. The right-hander allowed six hits, struck out five and did not walk a batter.Cueto showed right away he had good stuff, striking out the first three batters. He lowered his ERA to 1.89, which leads the majors after the outing gave him enough innings to officially qualify.Baker even kept him in to bat in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and two outs.”Johnny Cueto threw a heck of a ballgame,” Baker said. “We were hoping that possibly he could shut them out and go the distance, but that home run by Zimmerman kind of negated that.”Washington had runners reach third base in the second and fourth innings, but each time Cueto easily got out of the jam.”In the bullpen warming up, I felt really, really good today,” Cueto said. “My main thing was location. I was locating the pitches where I wanted, except the one (Zimmerman) hit out. The ball was supposed to go outside, and it landed in the middle.”Ross Detwiler (1-3) pitched six innings, his longest outing of the season. He allowed one run and seven hits while striking out a career-high seven and walking two.The only blemish for Detwiler was Joey Votto’s 20th home run with two outs in the first inning on a fastball that stayed up.”Looking at it now, throw anything but what I threw there, and hopefully he doesn’t hit it out,” Detwiler said.Cincinnati posed a scoring threat in the third when the Reds loaded the bases with one out before Detwiler struck out Jay Bruce and Miguel Cairo hit a fly ball to shallow right field to end the inning.The Reds picked up an insurance run in the eighth. They had a chance to score more but left the bases loaded.Consecutive singles by Votto and Bruce against reliever Sean Burnett put runners on the corners with no outs. Cairo grounded sharply up the middle, and Burnett snagged it and threw to third to catch Votto, who had started for home on the play. Another walk by Burnett loaded the bases.Ryan Mattheus replaced Burnett, and Ramon Hernandez hit a grounder up the middle that was fielded by shortstop Ian Desmond. A slight slip when Desmond fielded the ball left him unable to turn a double play, but he did throw out Hernandez while Bruce scored.Another walk by Mattheus loaded the bases for Cueto, who grounded to second to end the inning.

Ryan Zimmerman’s leadoff homer in the bottom of the ninth inning gave Washington fans hope for a comeback win Wednesday night that never materialized as the Nationals fell to the Cincinnati Reds 2-1.

After stymying the Nats for eight innings, Reds starter Johnny Cueto lost the shutout on the first pitch in the bottom of the ninth as Zimmerman deposited the ball into the left-center field seats and ended Cueto’s night.

With Washington now trailing by a single run, Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker sent closer Francisco Cordero to shut the door on what had been an otherwise fantastic outing by Cueto (9-5).

Instead, Cordero (24 saves) nearly found himself with the loss before getting out of a bases-loaded jam with one out when Nats catcher Wilson Ramos grounded into a game-ending double play.

UP NEXT

Nats vs. Reds

Jordan Zimmermann (7-10, 3.23 ERA)

vs. Bronson Arroyo (7-9, 5.31)

When » 7:05 pm

Where » Nationals Park

TV/Radio » MASN HD/106.7 FM

The Nats managed just five hits before the ninth inning while also stranding two runners at third base and wasting a career outing for starting pitcher Ross Detwiler (1-3). The southpaw threw six innings, allowing just one run on seven hits and striking out a career-high seven against two walks.

Detwiler allowed a solo home run to Reds first baseman, and 2010 NL MVP, Joey Votto in the bottom of the first.

Despite the loss, Detwiler threw perhaps is best game in his short major league career, showing good command of his sinker.

“I thought I threw a lot of sinkers, I kept it down. I think that was the biggest thing,” Detwiler said. “The one to Votto was obviously a four-seamer and it was not down.”

On the other side of the diamond, Cueto kept the Nats off balance all night until the very end. Still reaching the mid-90s at the end of the eighth, Cueto lowered his ERA to 1.89, which would lead MLB except he hasn’t made enough starts to qualify.

The Reds scored the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth after Nats reliever Sean Burnett loaded the bases. Ryan Mattheus came on in relief of Burnett with one out and the Nats nearly escaped the jam. Reds catcher Ramon Hernandez hit a ball up the middle that second baseman Danny Espinosa fielded on the shortstop side of the base, but slipped a little as he approached second base, missing the play at the bag but easily retiring Hernandez at first as Jay Bruce scored Cincinnati’s second run.

lsaffelle@washingtonexaminer.com