SEATTLE (July 22, 2026, EST) — Eugenio Suárez Chase Burns Reds baseball delivered again Tuesday night, as Suárez homered against his former team and Burns fired five scoreless innings in a 4-2 Cincinnati win over the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. It was the kind of complementary performance — a milestone bat and a dominant young arm — that has defined the Eugenio Suárez Chase Burns Reds formula for much of this season.
Elly De La Cruz set the tone immediately, opening the game with a leadoff home run off Mariners starter — and former Reds pitcher — Luis Castillo, working an eight-pitch at-bat before depositing one to right-center field. Suárez added to the lead in the fourth, turning on a first-pitch fastball from Castillo and lifting it to left-center for a solo shot that pushed Cincinnati ahead 2-0.
Why the Eugenio Suárez Chase Burns Reds Combination Worked So Well
Suárez’s homer carried extra weight given his history in Seattle. He played parts of three seasons with the Mariners earlier in his career and was greeted with a standing ovation from the home crowd during Monday’s series opener. Tuesday’s blast was his 203rd home run in a Reds uniform, moving him into a tie with Eric Davis for 10th place on Cincinnati’s all-time franchise home run list — a genuine franchise milestone tucked inside a game against the exact organization where part of his career began.
Castillo, for his part, was facing his own former team from the other dugout. He’d pitched for Cincinnati earlier in his career before eventually landing in Seattle, adding another layer of former-team storylines to a game that already had plenty. He took the loss, falling to 3-9 on the season after allowing both home runs.
Burns Continues an Historic Season
Burns entered Tuesday’s start at 11-1 with a 2.54 ERA, and he didn’t let the moment slow him down just days after agreeing to a seven-year, $105 million contract extension with Cincinnati on Saturday. The 23-year-old right-hander worked five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and two walks while striking out six, needing just 91 pitches to get through his outing and hand the ball over with a three-run cushion intact.
The final line dropped Burns’s ERA to 2.42 with 124 strikeouts across 107⅔ innings on the season, and it marked the 16th time in 19 starts this year that he’s allowed two runs or fewer — a remarkable level of consistency for a pitcher still just in his second full professional season. Tuesday’s win also pushed his record to 12-1, keeping him squarely in the conversation for postseason pitching honors as the season moves into its second half.
The Defensive Play That Sealed Burns’s Night
Burns’s final inning included two standout defensive plays that kept the shutout intact through five. With one out in the fifth, Cole Young hit a deep drive to center field that TJ Friedl tracked down with a running catch, falling to the ground as he secured it. Two batters later, Randy Arozarena sharply hit a one-hopper down the third-base line, where Suárez made a diving stop and an across-his-body throw to first baseman Sal Stewart for the final out. Seattle challenged whether Stewart kept his foot on the bag during the stretch, but the call was confirmed after replay review, closing out Burns’s outing exactly as clean as the box score suggests.
What Comes Next
Cincinnati’s bullpen closed the door from there, with Efraín Pagán picking up his eighth save of the season to secure the 4-2 win. The victory came one night after Seattle had routed the Reds 8-0 behind a Cal Raleigh grand slam, giving Cincinnati a much-needed response in the middle game of the series.
For Burns, the win adds another data point to what’s already shaping up as one of the more remarkable age-23 seasons in recent Reds history, arriving just days after the organization made its long-term commitment to him official. For Suárez, Tuesday’s homer was as much a personal milestone as a team accomplishment — another reminder of how much history he’s built across stops in both Cincinnati and Seattle over the course of his career.
Why This Result Matters for Cincinnati’s Season
The Eugenio Suárez Chase Burns Reds pairing has become an increasingly reliable formula for Cincinnati this season — a veteran bat capable of producing milestone moments combined with a young ace turning in some of the most consistent starts in the league. Tuesday’s win snapped a two-game skid against Seattle and gave the Reds a much-needed answer after Monday’s lopsided loss, showing the kind of resilience a playoff-caliber roster needs across a long summer schedule.
Burns’s extension, agreed to just days before this start, signals that Cincinnati views him as a foundational piece of the roster for years to come, not simply a hot streak the front office expects to cool off. Locking in a 23-year-old with a sub-2.50 ERA and a strikeout rate this high, before he even reaches his first full round of salary arbitration, is exactly the kind of long-term bet a team makes when it believes the performance is sustainable rather than a small-sample fluke.
Suárez, meanwhile, continues adding to a franchise legacy that now includes multiple stints across both cities on this specific diamond. Climbing into a tie for 10th on Cincinnati’s all-time home run list puts him in rare company among Reds greats, and doing it specifically against the Mariners — the team where a meaningful chunk of his career also unfolded — gave Tuesday’s milestone an extra layer of significance beyond the simple box score.
Looking Ahead in the Series
Cincinnati will look to close out the series with another strong pitching performance, while Seattle searches for the offensive consistency that produced Sunday’s grand slam outburst but has otherwise been inconsistent across this stretch of games. With Burns now locked up long-term and Suárez continuing to produce milestone moments deep into his 30s, the Eugenio Suárez Chase Burns Reds combination looks poised to remain a central storyline for Cincinnati through the rest of the summer and into whatever postseason push the team is able to mount.
FAQ
Q: What milestone did Eugenio Suárez reach against the Mariners?
A: His fourth-inning solo homer was his 203rd as a Red, tying Eric Davis for 10th place on Cincinnati’s all-time franchise home run list.
Q: How did Chase Burns pitch against Seattle?
A: He threw five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and two walks while striking out six, lowering his ERA to 2.42 and improving to 12-1 on the season.
Q: Did Chase Burns just sign a contract extension?
A: Yes — he agreed to a seven-year, $105 million extension with the Reds on Saturday, just days before this start.
Q: What was Eugenio Suárez’s history with the Mariners?
A: He played parts of three seasons in Seattle earlier in his career and received a standing ovation from Mariners fans during Monday’s series opener.
