Cubs 2, Reds 0
CINCINNATI - Travis Wood has pitched well enough to beat his former team this season. He finally was rewarded on Monday night.
The left-hander allowed six hits, including three doubles, but he didn't walk anybody and no Cincinnati runner got past second base in his seven innings as the Chicago Cubs edged the Reds, 2-0, before a crowd of 22,920 at Great American Ball Park.
Pedro Strop pitched the eighth inning and Kevin Gregg earned his 31st save with a scoreless ninth, giving the Cubs their sixth shutout win of the season while handing the Reds their 10th shutout loss. The Cubs had nine shutout wins last season, while the Reds had four shutout losses.
Wood (9-11) went into the game 0-4 with a 4.15 earned-run average in six starts against Cincinnati, which had sent him to Chicago in a trade for left-handed relief pitcher Sean Marshall before the 2012 season. Wood, who struck out seven and hit a batter on Monday, was 0-3 with a 3.67 ERA in three starts this year.
The Reds were coming off a three-game sweep of the National League West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers that left them 6-1 through the first seven games of their 10-game homestand.
They went into the Chicago series -- the last between the teams this season -- 13-3 against the Cubs in 2013.
But the Cubs reached Reds starter Bronson Arroyo for one-out solo home runs in back-to-back innings to take a 2-0 lead after three innings. In the second, Ryan Sweeney connected for his sixth homer, a 365-foot shot into the right field seats on a 1-1 pitch. Luis Valbuena followed in the third with his 11th, a 392-foot poke to right field on a 1-1 pitch.
NOTES: The game was the first of the Cubs' 11-game, 11-day trek through Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, their longest road trip since a 12-game, 11-day trip in September 2004. ... Wood hit Reds CF Shin-Soo Choo with a pitch with one out in the fourth inning, giving Choo the single-season franchise record for being hit by pitches, 25. The previous record was set by Jason LaRue in 2004. ... Reds SS Zack Cozart extended his career-best hitting streak to 14 games with a fourth-inning, two-out double to left field.
