CINCINNATI — Elly De La Cruz homered and drove in four runs and Chase Burns reached 100 strikeouts faster than any other Cincinnati pitcher as the Reds beat the Colorado Rockies 7-2 on Tuesday night.

De La Cruz sandwiched a pair of RBI singles around a two-run homer by Spencer Steer — his fifth — for a 4-1 lead in the third inning. De La Cruz then hit his team-leading 10th homer in the eighth after a base hit by Dane Myers, giving the Reds a 6-2 lead. He finished 3 for 4 with two steals.

Burns (3-1) issued a game-opening walk to Edouard Julien and then struck out the side. He struck out TJ Rumfield swinging for the third out and his 100th strikeout in 72 1/3 innings.

Burns matched his season high with nine strikeouts, allowing two runs on seven hits and a walk in six innings. He threw 97 pitches and left after striking out Kyle Karros with one out and runners on second and third and retiring Ezequiel Tovar on a flyout.

Relievers Graham Ashcraft, Tony Santillan and Brock Burke closed it out the win for Cincinnati.

Kyle Freeland (1-2) came off the injured list and walked Myers to begin his first start since April 7th. Myers scored on De La Cruz’s single before Steer homered for a 3-0 lead. The Reds are 13-1 when scoring first.

Freeland allowed four runs on five hits in five innings. Tanner Gordorn gave up three runs in three innings.

Burns allowed a leadoff single to Tyler Freeman in the second, but De La Cruz robbed Karros of a one-out base hit to help keep it 3-0.

Julien hit his second homer — a solo shot in the third — before Burns struck out the side. Julien added an RBI single in the fifth and finished with three hits. Mickey Moniak went 1 for 5 and extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

Sal Stewart doubled and scored the final run on Nathaniel Lowe’s single as Cincinnati improved to 12-2 in the last 14 games with Colorado.

Up next

Rockies RHP Tomoyuki Sugano (2-1, 3.42 ERA) starts today opposite Reds LHP Brandon Williamson (2-2, 5.40).