CINCINNATI (AP) — Eugenio Suarez didn’t wait around to get his team going on Wednesday.

Cincinnati’s All-Star third baseman 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.

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.

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