With a convincing victory Wednesday night, the Cincinnati Reds ended the Miami Marlins’ franchise-record road winning streak — and ensured Cincinnati still has a chance at maintaining its own positive streak as they head toward the All-Star break.
The Reds will aim to salvage a split of a four-game series Thursday afternoon when they host the Marlins in the final regular-season game between the teams.
Left-hander Nick Lodolo (5-6, 3.58 ERA) is slated to start for the Reds against Marlins right-hander Cal Quantrill (3-7, 5.40).
The Reds avoided falling under .500 for the first time in more than a month Wednesday night, when All-Star Andrew Abbott carried a shutout into the eighth inning and earned the win as Cincinnati snapped a four-game losing streak with a 7-2 victory.
Elly De La Cruz had a pair of RBI doubles while Noelvi Marte and Will Benson homered for Cincinnati, which raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning against Sandy Alcantara on its way to improving to 47-46.
The Reds, who received at least one hit from every starter Wednesday night, haven’t been below the break-even mark since they were 32-33 on June 7.
“We scored early and then we added on,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “That’s a really good recipe. It’s not as easy to do as you say, but we had good at-bats.”
The win also ensured the Reds would not be swept in the four-game series. Cincinnati, the only team in the majors that has not been swept this season, is scheduled to finish the first half with a three-game series at home against the Colorado Rockies, who are on pace to lose a modern record 125 games.
The Marlins’ 11-game road winning streak was the longest in the majors since the Philadelphia Phillies won 13 straight road games in June and July of 2023. Miami outscored its opposition 82-47 during the road surge, which dated back to June 13 and included sweeps of the Washington Nationals, San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Marlins are now 22-22 on the road. They haven’t finished with a winning road record in a full season since going 44-37 in 2009, though Miami was 20-14 away from home during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.
“Things aren’t always going to be easy, and I think that early in the year, there were some times where we needed to swallow our pride and just survive innings and get through games where we didn’t do a great job of that,” Quantrill said following his most recent road start June 29, when he allowed two runs over five innings in the Marlins’ 6-4 victory over the Diamondbacks.
“I think these last couple weeks, we’ve done a better job of that.”
Lodolo took the loss in his most recent start last Saturday, when he allowed three runs over six innings in a 5-1 loss to the Phillies. Quantrill didn’t factor into the decision Saturday after giving up two runs over 3 2/3 innings in the Marlins’ 4-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.
Lodolo is 2-1 with a 2.82 ERA in four career starts against the Marlins. Quantrill, who pitched under Francona with Cleveland from 2020 through ’23, is 0-2 with a 5.30 ERA in five games (three starts) against the Reds.