MIAMI _ The night began with a "wooo!"
J.T. Realmuto supplied the wow with a smashing home run in the seventh inning Friday that provided the first lead for the Miami Marlins on the way to a third consecutive win, 7-4, against the Cincinnati Reds.
It took a while for Marlins hitters to show some fight on Wrestling Night featuring Ric Flair at Marlins Park,
Prior to the game, the Nature Boy expressed his admiration for Marlins manager Don Mattingly, lobbed a ceremonial pitch to A.J. Ramos and did a duet with the Marlins closer on his trademark "Wooo!"
Then it was mostly quiet until Realmuto crushed a Wandy Peralta changeup on a high arc to left, past the auxiliary scoreboard to a region usually reserved for balls off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton.
Realmuto's 12th homer, his high for a season, ignited a four-run inning that included Mike Aviles' first career pinch-hit homer, a two-run shot.
The homers were sandwiched around back-to-back doubles to left-center by Derek Dietrich and Tyler Moore.
The Marlins were 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position before Moore drove Dietrich home.
The previous inning, Ichiro Suzuki pulled a pinch-hit double into the corner in right for his 3,060th career hit, tying Craig Biggio for 22nd on the career list.
It sent Miguel Rojas to third, and he would score the tying run with an aggressive dash home on Stanton's bouncer to third.
Four Marlins relievers subdued the Reds over the final five innings after Vance Worley gave up three runs in the first four.
Opportunities have surfaced with Nick Wittgren (elbow strain) Friday becoming the second reliever to go on the disabled list this week, joining Kyle Barraclough.
Lefty Hunter Cervenka was impressive in his second appearance since being called up from the minors, striking out five in two hitless innings. Four of them came on sharp curveballs. He registered strikes on 18 of 29 pitches.
Dustin McGowan and Drew Steckenrider each turned in a scoreless inning, the latter striking out the side in the eighth. Junichi Tazawa gave up an upper-deck homer to right by Scott Schebler in the ninth.
For the home team, it was early woes until Reds starter Romano gifted two unearned runs in the fourth. Romano, who held the Marlins to one run in six innings Sunday for a win in Cincinnati, was unable to complete the tough task of winning back-to-back starts against the same opponent.
Cruising with a 3-0 lead, Romano walked three in the inning and sailed a throw to the backstop that should have been an easy force at home on a comebacker by pinch-hitter Tomas Telis.
The other run scored on Dee Gordon's sacrifice fly. Realmuto's leadoff double was the only hit in the inning.
The final spot in the Marlins' starting rotation might as well be a no-parking zone. Nobody has occupied it for long this season.
Worley is the latest to give it a go. The veteran journeyman got the assignment Friday more by default than merit. He had a 7.71 ERA in four starts earlier this season, and hadn't been appreciatively better out of the bullpen.
But after failures of Tom Koehler (twice), Jeff Locke and Justin Nicolino it was a matter of why not Worley? The answer wasn't conclusive.
With Edinson Volquez and Wei-Yin Chen out with injuries and not expected back soon, Mattingly said Worley would be given a chance to stick in the rotation.
Worley recovered from allowing three quick runs in the first to complete four innings without further damage. Mattingly opted to have Telis pinch-hit with the rally brewing.
It took the Reds four batters to forge a 3-0 lead after Worley. Walking the leadoff hitter is never a good idea, especially the league leader in stolen bases. Billy Hamilton quickly added to that with his 44th, upheld when a Marlins challenge of the close play was rejected. He scored on Joey Votto's 800th career RBI on a single to center.
A bigger mistake by Worley was leaving a mediocre fastball up in Adam Duvall's wheelhouse, and it quickly became a souvenir in the left-field seats for a two-run homer.
