Eugenio Suarez hit a two-run double and Brandon Williamson pitched into the sixth inning to lead the Cincinnati Reds to a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Twins on Friday night in Minneapolis.

Williamson (2-1), a Fairmont, Minn., native, earned the win in the opener of a three-game set. He threw 5 1/3 innings, allowed three hits, one run, four walks and struck out two in his homecoming start. Suarez had two of Cincinnati’s four hits.

Minnesota starter Joe Ryan (2-2) gave up three hits, two runs (one earned) and struck out six in a solid six-inning outing. Josh Bell was 2-for-4 for the Twins, who only had five hits.

Emilio Pagan tossed a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth to register his sixth save for the Reds.

Elly De La Cruz got the Reds going in the fourth when he hammered a double to deep right field. Sal Stewart reached on an error and stole second. Suarez knocked them in with a double that landed in the left-center gap as the Reds took a 2-0 lead.

A bout of wildness from Williamson led to three straight walks as the Twins loaded the bases in the fifth with no outs. Austin Martin’s sacrifice fly was caught by a sliding Will Benson in right field as Minnesota pulled within 2-1. Williamson escaped a big inning by inducing Luke Keaschall to ground into a double play.

Through three innings, Ryan was cruising. The Reds only hit was a Stewart’s blooper to shallow right field in the second.

The first bases-loaded jam of the game challenged Williamson in the third. Matt Wallner led off with a hit by pitch that he took in the right elbow guard. After two flyouts, Byron Buxton lined a single to left field and Martin walked to load the bases. But Keaschall struck out looking to end the threat.

–Field Level Media

Kennedy Wesley scored and had an assist during a 17-minute, second half eruption when the U.S. women’s national team scored all its goals for a 3-0 victory over Japan in Commerce City, Colo., on Friday.

The U.S. won two of three in the series vs. Japan over the past week, prevailing in the finale on goals by Naomi Girma (47th minute), Rose Lavelle (56th) and Wesley (64th).

Wesley, who entered at halftime, got her first U.S. goal contribution in her sixth match on the opening score. She headed a corner kick by Lavelle to Girma in front of the goal for another header and Girma’s third career goal.

Lavelle stretched the lead to 2-0 after a pass by Trinity Rodman split the defense to send her on a break. Lavelle calmly scored from the top of the box to the left corner. She has 29 goals in 120 appearances for the USWNT.

Another corner kick, this one by Jaedyn Shaw, found the right foot of Wesley to extend the lead.

Several inches of snow were cleared from the field hours before the match and the kickoff temperature was 36 degrees.

Claire Hutton was the lone holdover starter from the United States’ 1-0 loss to Japan in Seattle on Tuesday. However, nine starters for this match also started in the 2-1 U.S. victory on April 11.

The U.S. outplayed but couldn’t outscore Japan in the first half with 70% possession, nine shots with two on goal while Japan’s one attempt was a comfortable for goalkeeper Claudia Dickey in the 5th minute.

There were three prime chances for the U.S. beginning with Colorado native Sophia Wilson’s try in the 20th minute. Tierna Davidson headed a pass to her in the center of the box, and Wilson put the shot on target, but goalie Chika Hirao parried it over the crossbar.

Nearly 20 minutes later on a break, Hutton took a setup in stride from Alyssa Thompson and ripped a shot off the bar from outside the box. In fourth minute of first-half stoppage time, Girma forced a close-range save.

–Field Level Media

Nolan Gorman clubbed a three-run home run in the top of the seventh inning to give the St. Louis Cardinals plenty of breathing room as they claimed a 9-4 win in the opener of a three-game interleague series against the Astros in Houston on Friday.

Gorman smacked his third homer of the season 353 feet to right field to break open a nip-and-tuck affair. He plated Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker by turning on an inside fastball from scuffling Astros reliever Bryan Abreu while countering the three solo homers the Astros hit to climb back into contention.

Cardinals right-hander Kyle Leahy (2-2) surrendered all three homers but was otherwise effective. He allowed five hits and did not issue a walk while recording six strikeouts across five innings. Leahy stranded Yordan Alvarez in the bottom of the first and left the bases loaded in the fourth when he struck out Christian Vazquez and pinch-hitter Isaac Paredes in succession.

The Cardinals spotted Leahy a 3-0 lead before the Astros rallied.

JJ Wetherholt, Burleson and Walker all singled in the first off Houston right-hander Peter Lambert (0-1), the fourth consecutive pitcher making his first start for the Astros’ injury-marred rotation. Walker plated Wetherholt with his single to center for a 1-0 lead, an advantage the Cardinals upped in the third when Masyn Winn roped a two-run single that plated Wetherholt and Ivan Herrera.

Lambert loaded the bases with no outs in the third before nearly escaping unscathed. He struck out Walker and Gorman and had two strikes against Winn, but could not hold the deficit to one. Lambert allowed four runs on seven hits and one walk with eight strikeouts over five innings, with Herrera delivering an RBI single in the fourth that scored Pedro Pages for a 4-2 lead.

Vazquez and Alvarez smacked homers off Leahy in the third, with Vazquez leading off that frame with his second home run of the season before Alvarez added his eighth three batters later. Jose Altuve led off the fifth with his third homer to shave the deficit to 4-3.

But after Gorman provided the Cardinals some cushion, Herrera socked a two-run homer that scored Wetherholt in the eighth. Wetherhold scored three runs; Gorman and Herrera had three RBIs apiece.

–Field Level Media