Cincinnati's All-Star third baseman Eugenio Suarez homered for the third straight game, this time in the first inning, Tucker Barnhart added a two-run shot and the Reds powered to a 7-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Adam Duvall also homered for the Reds. Sal Romano (6-8) allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings to give the Reds consecutive series wins over St. Louis for the first time since 2011.
Romano, who hadn't pitched in 10 days and hadn't started in 15, was surprisingly sharp with just one walk.
Paul DeJong and Yadier Molina hit solo homers for the Cardinals, who went 3-5 on their eight-game road trip. DeJong homered in the third inning and Molina hit his 14th of the season in the seventh inning.
Molina flied out with the bases loaded and St. Louis trailing 5-3 in the eighth. The Cardinals were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and had 11 runners left on base - so many that it looked to interim manager Mike Shildt as if it were twice as many.
Suarez tied Monday's game with a two-out solo homer in the ninth inning and Tuesday's game with a two-out, two-run, seventh-inning shot.
The Cardinals had rookie starters each go deep without allowing a hit in the first two games of the series. The Reds went 7 1/3 innings without a hit on Monday and 6 1/3 without a hit on Tuesday.
Suarez got the Reds offense going early on Wednesday when he hit a two-run homer off Jack Flaherty.
Duvall added a two-out, opposite-field solo shot into the right-field seats in the fourth to make it 3-1, giving the Reds more than two runs in a game for the first time in their past six games.
John Gant gave up Barnhart's two-run drive into the bullpen down the right-field line in the sixth to make it 5-2.
Phillip Ervin broke the game open with an eighth-inning two-run double.
Flaherty (4-5) allowed three runs, four hits, two walks with eight strikeouts in five innings.
RHP Luke Weaver (5-9) will face righty Tyler Mahle (7-8) for the Reds as both pitchers have struggled entering the mathcup.
