Cincinnati Reds hit four homers in win over San Francisco Giants

CINCINNATI -- The condition of Zack Cozart's surgically repaired right knee is a day-to-day proposition with recurring tendinitis being something he will have to deal with throughout the season. After missing two games due to soreness, Cozart had a really good day on Wednesday, as did his teammates.

Cozart returned to the lineup and hit a two-run home run -- one of four homers hit by Cincinnati -- and Dan Straily earned his first win as a member of the Reds in a 7-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants in the finale of a three-game series at Great American Ball Park.

"Feeling healthy is how I rate my day, and today's the best I've felt all year," Cozart said. "It's something I have to manage all year. I'll take a day (off) when I need to."

Eugenio Suarez had three hits, including a two-run homer, and Brandon Phillips and Adam Duvall added solo shots for the Reds (11-17), who avoided being swept by the Giants in Cincinnati for the first time since 1999.

Brandon Belt and Conor Gillaspie homered for San Francisco (15-14).

Belt led off the second inning with his fourth home run on a 1-2 pitch from Straily to put the Giants ahead 1-0. Straily (1-1) allowed three runs and six hits over 6 1/3 innings.

"When I got here I was just thankful to have a job," Straily said. "At some point I knew they would need me to start. I was ready for that."

Meanwhile, Jake Peavy (1-3), who came in 7-0 lifetime with a 2.38 ERA in 12 prior starts against the Reds, was defeated by Cincinnati for the first time.

Phillips' second homer of the season leading off the bottom half of the second tied the score 1-1.

Following Jay Bruce's double, Suarez launched a 2-2 pitch into the home bullpen in right-center to put Cincinnati ahead 3-1.

"He couldn't stop it in the second," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy of Peavy. "After that, he was more like Jake. He battled and ended up giving us some needed innings. His ball was up a lot. Over his last two or three innings, he was hitting spots and mixing in his changeup."

Cozart capped the scoring in the third with a two-run homer, his third of the season.

"He's tough," said manager Bryan Price of Cozart. "We know he's not 100 percent. The tendinitis is problematic. He plays through it."

It was the first time in Peavy's 15-year career that he had allowed three homers in an inning.

"He didn't have his (best) command today, obviously," said Cozart of Peavy. "Even his breaking pitches were up."

Gillaspie's first home run of the season cut the Giants' deficit to 6-2 in the fourth.

The home runs by Belt and Gillaspie aside, Straily allowed only two hits while striking out four.

After allowing an RBI single in the third, Peavy retired eight of nine.

But Duvall's solo home run in the sixth made the score 7-2. Duvall, a former Giant, also homered in Tuesday night's game.

Peavy had allowed only three homers total in 12 prior starts against Cincinnati. The four homers allowed tied his career high, which occurred for the third time.

"Poor execution," said Peavy. "It was tough in the second inning. There's a couple of pitches I'd like to get back. I really feel like I settled down and executed pitches after that. It's not a matter of my stuff. It comes down to the execution. The swing-and-miss stuff looks fine, to the point of punching out eight today. It's a matter of execution."

The Giants loaded the bases with one out in the seventh to end Straily's afternoon but could only manage one run on Buster Posey's pinch-hit sacrifice fly off Tony Cingrani to make the score 7-3.

"The fact that he was able to stop it right there was huge," said Straily of Cingrani. "One run in that situation, take that all day."

In the ninth, Denard Span's RBI single extended the Reds' major-league-record streak to 22 straight games in which the bullpen has allowed a run. But Ross Ohlendorf struck out pinch hitter Matt Duffy to close out the win.

"It's a step in the right direction," said Price, of his beleaguered bullpen. "It was nice to go out there and finish a game."

NOTES: Reds SS Zack Cozart returned to the lineup Wednesday after missing two games with tendinitis in his surgically repaired right knee. ... Reds CF Billy Hamilton was out of the lineup Wednesday after leaving Tuesday's game with a jammed left thumb but entered the game in center field in the ninth. ... Giants C Buster Posey received a customary day off on Wednesday but did pinch hit in the seventh. Trevor Brown started behind the plate. ... The Giants haven't swept the Reds in Cincinnati since April 5-7, 1999.